YOU DON’T GET FREEDOM, YOU TAKE FREEDOM: CARIBBEAN ACTIVIST CINEMA 1978–1985
May 30@ 5:15 pm
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
In keeping with its ongoing commitment to presenting heritage works of Caribbean cinema, both during its annual festival and as part of its year-round programming, Third Horizon is honored to present a retrospective of restored films at this year’s Festival. Entitled You Don’t Get Freedom, You Take Freedom: Caribbean Activist Cinema 1978–1985, the retrospective comprises four films, all recently restored works, themed around labor and workers’ rights.
Three of the films are documentaries, collaboratively made works of non-fiction, originally shot on 16mm and being presented at THFF25 in beautiful digital restorations. While they were made independently of each other, the films all share a concern for the rights of laboring people, within the context of often exploitative, neocolonial hegemonic power structures. They also reflect the often creative ways in which working people organize to agitate for their rights and for better employment and working conditions.
The final film that rounds out the retrospective is the recent restoration of West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty (1979), directed by the late Mauritanian French filmmaker Med Hondo.
This screening is supported by: Dutch Culture USA at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, The Netherland-America Foundation & The Miami Workers Center
SWEET SUGAR RAGE
By Honor Ford-Smith, Harclyde Walcott | 56 mins | 1985 | Jamaica
MAY 30, 5:15PM – Purchase Ticket
In the documentary Sweet Sugar Rage, being presented at THFF25 in a new, extended restoration, Sistren Collective, a popular Jamaican women’s troupe, uses improvisation and theater as consciousness-raising tools for both rural and urban audiences. Their performances speak directly to the daily experiences of women—the least empowered workers, who labor long hours for low wages with no benefits or rights to organize for better conditions. Using role-play and interviews with female cane workers, the collective develops dramatizations which analyze social issues and pinpoint their concerns.
OEMA FOE SRANAN (WOMEN OF SURINAME)
By At van Praag, Nadia Tilon & Luna Hupperetz | 56 mins | 1978 | Suriname, The Netherlands
MAY 30, 5:15PM – Purchase Ticket
Oema Foe Sranan (Women of Suriname) portrays the lives of four women, who relate the history of Dutch (neo)colonialism in Suriname and racism and being disenfranchised in the Netherlands using personal stories. The film was produced by Cineclub Vrijheidsfilms in cooperation with LOSON (the Dutch national organisation for Surinamese people), in the framework of political struggle, as a sign of solidarity between Surinamese and Dutch people, who transfer a collective message about the socio-political situation in Suriname and the Surinamese community in the 1970s. The film centers on the hope for a better future, and liberation from foreign influence.