"Our deepest memories live at the shoreline...where the Atlantic ocean meets solid ground"

The first “Great Migration,” which occurred from 1916–1930, saw the African-American population of Philadelphia increase from 62,000 in 1900 to 220,000 in 1930, as a direct result of the Pennsylvania Rai...

Njinga, Queen of Angola (Njinga, Rainha de Angola)
Dir. Sergio Graciano
Angola. 2013. 109min. Colour. Portuguese with English subtitles.

In 17th century Angola, a woman leads her kingdom in a 40-year struggle for freedom and independence. Her name is Njinga. She will be known as Queen Njing...

Viviane - Kumu Neexul

Viviane Ndour (born Viviane Chidid) is a Senegalese pop singer. She is known by some as the "Queen of Mbalax. Ndour was born in Mbour, Senegal, one of the coastal cities near the Atlantic Ocean.

Her father is from Lebanon and her mother is from Mauritania. Her grandmo...

A 6 minute meditation on Outsider Artist in Chicago featuring Walking stick sculptor David Philpot, musician/artist Douglas Ewart, and prosthetic artist Robert Gramsch.

The Duke Is Tops is a 1938 American musical film released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later released in 1943 under the title The Bronze Venus, with Lena Horne given top billing. The film was one of a number of low-budgeted musicals (or "race movies") ...

Born María Concepción Balboa Buika in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Buika grew up immersed in Spanish culture with her African-born parents. Surrounded by multiple cultures throughout her life, Buika had a variety of musical influences, from jazz and flamenco to pop, soul and African polyrhythm. This...

Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, was born on August 30, 1948 and raised in the Chicago suburb of Maywood, Illinois. Hampton became involved in the civil rights movement, joining his local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Co...

Ivan Van Sertima was a Guyanese-born historian, who gained global renown with his scholarship showing African presence in the Americas before Columbus..
Van Sertima’s most famous work was “They Came Before Columbus,” (Random House, 1976) which showed African influences in Central and South Ameri...

In 1915, the Biograph Company in an unprecedented move gave Bert Williams the authority to produce, write, direct, and star in two Biograph films, the "Natural Born Gambler" 1915, and "Fish" 1916, making him the first Black-American to have full control and produce his own films for a general aud...

In 1965, James Baldwin debated William F. Buckley at the Cambridge Union Society, Cambridge University. The topic of the debate was, “The American Dream is at the expense of the American negro.”
At the time, James Baldwin was well-established as a prominent writer and civil rights figure, having...

Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was a Trinidadian-born jazz and classical pianist and singer; she also performed as herself in several films.

Born in Port of Spain, Hazel was taken at the age of four by her mother to New York. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, Scott ...

In an unprecedented move for its day in 1915, Biograph Company executives hired actor Bert Williams to star, produce, direct, and write his own films, having full control, the first time a Black-American ever had such control given by a mainstream movie company. The two films made for Biograph we...

MACHETERO **Six International Awards For Best Film**
(2008) 1h 38min | Crime, Drama, News |
Director: Vagabond Beaumont

“A powerful piece of Filmmaking… I dug it. I loved the film”
– Sam Greenlee author & co-screenwriter of The Spook Who Sat By The Door

Post 9/11 definitions, ideas and n...

William Lee wrote, produced, directed and starred in this film, which concerns a secret agent guiding an adventurous female professor on a search for the Treasure of the Ninja.
Director: William Lee
Writer: William Lee

Stars: John H. Howenstine, Ajay Kumar, William Lee

http://www.imdb.com...

Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.

Goodbye Uncle Tom (Italian: Addio Zio Tom) is a 1971 Italian film directed by Mondo film documentary directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi with music by Riz Ortolani.

The fi...

In this early silent film from pioneering director Oscar Micheaux, kindly Sylvia Landry (Flo Clements) takes a fundraising trip to Boston in hopes of collecting $5,000 to keep a Southern school for impoverished black children open to the public. She then meets the warmhearted Dr. Vivian (William ...

Fatoumata Diawara & Amine Bouhafa
Fatoumata Diawara (born 1982 in Ivory Coast) is a Malian musician currently living in France. Born in Côte d'Ivoire to Malian parents, Diawara moved to France to pursue acting, appearing in Cheick Oumar Sissoko's 1999 feature film La Genèse and Dani Kouyaté's po...

MUTHONI THE DRUMMER QUEEN
Nairobi born and raised singer, songwriter, flow-poet, creative and social entrepreneur, Muthoni The Drummer Queen aka BaussLady, already poised to become a leading presence in the world of entertainment and social development.

Siji
Born in London to Nigerian émigrés, Siji is a producer, songwriter and artist. His own cultural heritage combined with the political and social movements of the age, exposed young Siji to the insurgent, politicized music of the Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and Juju king, Sunny Ade, as well as ...

Spoek Mathambo

Spoek Mathambo (born Nthato Mokgata 14 May 1985 in South Africa) is an artist, producer, singer-songwriter, rapper defined by his fusion of a wide array of musical influences and his coining the Township Tech, to describe the electronic music he produces.

Mathambo grew up in ...

Last Year’s Tragedy
Last Year’s Tragedy is a band from Nairobi, Kenya. The gang met in university and were brought together by their common musical interests. In a country where there are very few rock bands, not to mention heavy ones, it was initially difficult for the band to break through. LY...

Ibrahim Ferrer
Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a popular Afro-Cuban singer and musician in Cuba. He performed with many musical groups including the Conjunto Sorpresa, Orquesta Chepin-Choven and Afro-Cuban All Stars. Later in life, Ferrer became a member of the internatio...

Coumba Gawlo
Coumba Gawlo is a Senegalese artist who combines traditional griot structures in modern recording approaches. She was born as Coumba Seck in 1972 and has issued recordings made in Senegal and in France since 1990.

Fifi the Rai Blaster
It is hard to describe the musician that is Fifi.
Currently a resident of Pretoria, South Africa, Fifi was Introduced to the likes of Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Thelonius Monk, Coltrane, Hancock, Sun ra and Fela Kuti by her uncle Raymond Motau (The percussionist for the...

Blitz the Ambassador

Born and raised in Accra, Ghana, Blitz the Ambassador grew up to the sounds of Afro-Beat, Highlife, Jazz, and Motown. But when his older brother introduced him to Public Enemy's classic album, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, as a young boy, he was changed f...

Fifi the Rai Blaster
It is hard to describe the musician that is Fifi.
Currently a resident of Pretoria, South Africa, Fifi was Introduced to the likes of Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Thelonius Monk, Coltrane, Hancock, Sun ra and Fela Kuti by her uncle Raymond Motau (The percussionist for the...

Daara J Family
Daara J Family, (which means "the school" in Wolof) are a Senegalese rap duo that consists of N'Dongo D and Faada Freddy. Their music takes influence from hip hop, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and reggae and is performed in English, French, Spanish, and Wolof.

This clip is the finale of Valley of the Double Dragon, a film I saw back in 1975, at East London Dalston Rio Cinema during the midnight all-night Kung Fu marathon. Dozens would arrive there before midnight and watch Kung-fu films until 5:00 am and get night buses or wait around for the undergro...

In 1960, the Kenyan medical student Julius Ongewe was asked to take a role in the East German film, “First Spaceship on Venus”. As part of a popular and successful movie, Julius was asked if he would like to continue acting. He refused, saying he would serve his country better as a physician, sin...

“Assignment: Outer Space (Space Men)” is an Italian film production direct by Antonio Margheriti and acquired for US distribution by Samuel Z Arkoff.

One of the stars of the film was dancer Archie Savage (1914-2003), who played the role of Space Engineer "AL." A role oddly similar to Idris Elb...

The Emperor Jones, a 1933 American pre-Code film adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title, was made outside of the Hollywood studio system, financed with private money from neophyte wealthy producers, and directed by iconoclast Dudley Murphy. He cast Paul Robeson in his first film ...

For about 15 years, Sheryl Abel was in and out of the city lockup, Cook County Jail and the state's prison system for crimes she committed to feed her heroin addiction.

Today, having been clean for more than two decades, Abel, 54, often returns to Illinois Department of Corrections facilities ...

iNgoma was curated by Floyd Webb and Jonathan Woods and presented at the Chicago International film festival as part of it's focus on African film.

We started screening African music videos and promos as part of our monthly screenings in 2014. This was one of the works presented courtesy of W...

Whether playing on albums for soul singer Donny Hathaway or blowing a worn-out, crumpled horn as a street performer camped outside Symphony Center, the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Dodd lived for his music, his family said.

In his youth, he was a respected player in the city's j...

The Eyes of a Black Martial Artist
This short film featuring Sensei Deacon Hardy, of New Haven Connecticut, was produced and directed by Dianne Sweat. Sensei Deacon grew up in the 1970's as an urban kid so dedicated to the martial arts, that he eventually attained black belts in Shotokan,Karate...

The South Side of Chicago is notorious as one of the largest areas of urban poverty in America. Yet in the shadow of the massive housing projects, a vibrant martial arts tradition has been flourishing since the 1950s. Featuring the late Sensei Jaco, the father of Wasalu Jaco aka Lupe Fiasco, Sout...

The Blood of Jesus is a 1941 American race film written, directed, and starring Spencer Williams. It was also released under the alternate title of The Glory Road.

In a small rural village with an African American population, a church group is holding a riverside baptismal service, and one of ...

Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan is an action role-playing video game developed by the Cameroonian developer Kiro'o Games. In September 2015 Kiro'o started a Kickstarter campaign to complete their game, which was successfully completed a month later.

Just a Band is a Kenyan house/funk/disco band whose career was launched with their debut album, Scratch to Reveal, in 2008. Their music has explored various musical directions such as jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica.

The band are also notable for their DIY aesthetic. In addition to writin...

Just a Band is a Kenyan house/funk/disco band whose career was launched with their debut album, Scratch to Reveal, in 2008. Their music has explored various musical directions such as jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica.

The band are also notable for their DIY aesthetic. In addition to writin...

Just a Band is a Kenyan house/funk/disco band whose career was launched with their debut album, Scratch to Reveal, in 2008. Their music has explored various musical directions such as jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica.

The band are also notable for their DIY aesthetic. In addition to writin...

Dynamic UK dance duo Basement Jaxx colourful video for their single "Rock This Road." The track comes from their Junto CD and features vocals from London-based indie-reggae singer Shakka.

In the video, Lord Marqod (the interstellar god of dance, obviously) "approaches a lonely planet to har...

Black and Tan, more fully called Black and Tan Fantasy (1929), is a musical short film written and directed by Dudley Murphy about a couple in the performing arts; it is set during the contemporary Harlem Renaissance in New York City. It is the first film to feature Duke Ellington and His Orchest...

Blues Maker (1969) Short doc by University of Mississippi, Department of Educational Film, on blues musician 'Mississippi' Fred McDowell who talks about his style of music. It is essentially a showcase of his material, preferring more to contrast his songs alongside footage of the fields and citi...

Go Down Death takes place in an African-American community where the criminal boss Big Jim Bottoms (Spencer Williams) runs a successful juke joint. The arrival of a new preacher (Samuel H. James) to the town results in many of Big Jim’s customers leaving the juke joint in favor of attending churc...

In this 1948 film written by Fredrico Fellini, African-American John Kitzmiller become the first international black action hero.

Without Pity (Italian: Senza pietà) is a 1948 Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada from a script by the director himself, Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli, fr...

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (January 26, 1935 – May 25, 2009) was a Guyanese-born, associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States. Van Sertima’s gained global recognition with his most famous work “They Came Before Columbus,” (Random House, 1976) which showed Af...

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (January 26, 1935 – May 25, 2009) was a Guyanese-born, associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States. Van Sertima’s gained global recognition with his most famous work “They Came Before Columbus,” (Random House, 1976) which showed Af...

Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December 1923 – 7 February 1986) was a historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Though Diop is sometimes referred to as an Afrocentrist, he predates the concept and thus was not himself an Afro...

I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You is a 1932 American Pre-Code Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Koko the Clown and Bimbo. The cartoon features music by and a special guest appearance from jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra playing "Y...

Foday Musa Suso, griot, composer and kora master loomed large over the world beat landscape both before and after the Graceland groundswell. The solo records of this relentlessly innovative performer and tireless ambassador of African culture remained rooted in the meditative folk traditions of h...

Double V campaign was a slogan and drive to promote the fight for democracy abroad and within the United States for African Americans during World War II. The Double V refers to the "V for victory" sign prominently displayed by countries fighting "for victory over aggression, slavery, and tyranny...

A 1969 conversation with writer James Baldwin and Dick Gregory in London about the black experience in America and how it relates to the Caribbean and Great Britain. Directed by Horace Ové.

Film present on and coming to bwcTV

Minnie the Moocher (1932) is a Betty Boop cartoon produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures.

The cartoon opens with a live action sequence of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing an instrumental rendition of "St. James Infirmary". Then Betty Boop gets into a fight w...

Toumani Diabaté (born August 10, 1965) is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.

Diabaté comes from a long family tradition of kora pla...

Born in Côte d'Ivoire to Malian parents, Diawara moved to France to pursue acting, appearing in Cheick Oumar Sissoko's 1999 feature film La Genèse, Dani Kouyaté's popular 2001 film Sia, le rêve du python, in the internationally renowned street theatre troupe Royal de Luxe, and played a leading ro...

Two-Gun Man from Harlem is a 1938 American low-budget western directed by Richard C. Kahn. It was produced by Merit Pictures, distributed by Sack Amusements and featured an all-African-American cast.

Cast:
Herb Jeffries as Bob Blake/The Deacon
Marguerite Whitten as Sally Thompson
Clarence B...

Charleston Parade (1927)
Sur un air de Charleston (original title)
17min | Short, Sci-Fi | 19 March 1927 (France)

Shot in three days a surrealist Jean Renoir, this surreal, erotic silent short shows a native white girl teaching a futuristic African airman the Charleston dance.

Big Fella is a lively British musical built around the magnetic personality and unforgettable voice of the legendary Paul Robeson.

Loosely based on the 1929 novel Banjo by Claude McKay, Big Fella stars Robeson as Joe, a Marseilles dockworker who is asked by police to help find a young boy mis...

Old-time musical star Schyler Jarvis, now wealthy, is dying; his last act is a visionary plan for the future happiness of his son, swing bandleader Louis Jarvis, and Honey Carter, daughter of his long-lost love. But crooked lawyer Talbot has a nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Jarvis money...

Robeson plays Zinga, a black dockworker in England with a great baritone singing voice. He is discovered by an opera impresario, and is catapulted into great fame as an international opera star. Yet he feels alienated from his African past, and out of place in England. By chance, he is informed t...

A newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl's father. "Son of Ingagi" is allegedly the first science fiction-horror film to feature an all-black cast. Even if the film had no merit (which it does), this alone would make it worthwhile as a historic...

Owens, a black sharecropper's son from Alabama, stole the 1936 Olympics – winning his three individual events and adding a fourth gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay (which included Ralph Metcalf). The fact that four other American blacks also won did little to please Adolph Hitler, but the app...

It was the African-American participants who helped cement America's success at the Olympic Games. In all, the United States won 11 gold medals, six of them by black athletes. Owens was easily the most dominant athlete to compete. He captured four gold medals (the 100 meter, the long jump, the 20...

Owens, a black sharecropper's son from Alabama, stole the 1936 Olympics – winning his three individual events and adding a fourth gold medal in the 4x100-meter relay (which included Ralph Metcalf). The fact that four other American blacks also won did little to please Adolph Hitler, but the appla...

The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world".

Enormously successful in Jamaica, the film also reache...

Les Saignantes (2005) 92 min
Director, Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Les Saignantes is a 2005 futuristic, sci-fi, erotic thriller with a strong political sensibility. Two sexy young women win the favors of the corrupt political elite, but when one of these leaders dies in the middle of a sexual act, the...

Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was a Trinidadian-born jazz and classical pianist and singer; she also performed as herself in several films.

Born in Port of Spain, Hazel was taken at the age of four by her mother to New York. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, Scott ...

A passionate performance of the classic Motherless Child by Prince.

Legendary Blues Musician, Muddy Waters performs Hoochie Coochie Man at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival.

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), known by his stage name Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician who is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues".

Mu...

Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982), better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and occasional pianist, from Centerville, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 71 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time...

Just a Band is a Kenyan house/funk/disco band whose career was launched with their debut album, Scratch to Reveal, in 2008. Their music has explored various musical directions such as jazz, hip-hop, disco and electronica.

The band are also notable for their DIY aesthetic. In addition to writin...

Chester Arthur Burnett known as Howlin' Wolf, was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, originally from Mississippi. With a booming voice and looming physical presence, he is one of the best-known Chicago blues artists. Several of his songs, including "Smokestack Lightnin' have ...

This music video for the song “Molalatladi” by Johannesburg rockers, Blk Jks. Directed by Chell Stephen it is incorporates clips from “Sanza Hanza,” a documentary about the dangerous “sport” of train surfing in South Africa as well as footage of band members performing in Lower Manhattan or hangi...

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and is one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry r...

Arthur Prysock (January 2, 1929 - June 7, 1997) was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine. This a recording of an appearance on American Bandstand.