September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix dies in London, England at the age of 27

Jimi Hendrix considered one most influential guitarists in rock music history dies in London, England at the age of 27  September 18, 1970.
1 year before his death he performed one of the most memorable renditions of The Star Spangled Banner

B.B. King and Buddy Guy on Meeting Jimi Hendrix

The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Woodstock 1969)

8th Montreal International Black Film Festival

Monday, 06 August 2012 10:23

WINNIE to open the 8th Montreal International Black Film Festival -MIBFF - on Wednesday, September 19, 2012

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Montreal, August 6, 2012 – The highly anticipated film WINNIE by Darrell Roodt will open the 8th edition of the Montreal International Black Film Festival on September 19th, as a Quebec Premiere. Winnie, a Canadian co-production, produced by Quebec producer Michael Mosca from Equinoxe Films, will kick-start the official competition. « We are very proud to open the festival with such a big film produced by a Quebec producer; It’s a deeply moving story that leaves no one untouched » stated Fabienne Colas, President of the Festival.

Winnie stars Jennifer Hudson (Winnie Mandela), Academy Award winner and Grammy Award winner, and Terrence Howard(Nelson Mandela), Academy Award nominee.

Based on the biography by Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob “Winnie Mandela : A Life”, Winnie is an intimate, in-depth and unbiased film that will take the audience on a remarkable journey of understanding Winnie Mandela, one of the world's most famous female activists, exploring both her personal and political life. Winnie Mandela is a complex historical figure, appreciated for her role in the struggle against apartheid led by her husband, but whose obscure acquaintances make an equally controversial personality. Through her fierce determination and dauntless courage, Winnie Mandela survived her husband's imprisonment, continuous harassment by the security police, banishment to a small Free State town, betrayal by friends and allies, and more than a year in solitary confinement - all the while keeping the name of Nelson Mandela alive. A sensitive and balanced portrayal, the film nevertheless thoroughly investigates and honestly examines the controversies that dogged Winnie Mandela in recent years.

South African filmmaker and screenwriter Darrell Roodt, whose film Yesterday was nominated for an Academy Award in “Best Foreign Language Film” category in 2005, made an international name for himself with his debut feature A Place of Weeping (1986), a passionate condemnation of apartheid. Educated at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, he gained further acclaim for The Stick (1988), another look at the anti-apartheid struggle. In 1990, he made his first film with American backing, Jobman (1990). Roodt's best-known film is his adaptation of the anti-apartheid stage musical Sarafina! (1992) starring Whoopi Goldberg. He has made around 30 films ans TV series among which Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris (1995). He has since alternated between making films in Hollywood and South Africa. His latest film Winnie has been officially selected in both Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.

After its Quebec premiere at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, WINNIE, distributed by Equinoxe Films, will hit Quebec screens starting October 5, 2012.

The 8^th MIBFF will be held from September 19 to 30, 2012.

About the Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF)

Presented by Global Montreal, the Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF) was created in 2005 by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Cinema, Art and Culture. The mission of the MIBFF is to stimulate the development of the independent film industry and to showcase more films on the realities of Blacks from around the world. The Festival wants to promote a different kind of cinema, cinema that hails from here and from abroad and that does not necessarily have the opportunity to grace the big screen, groundbreaking cinema that moves us, that raises awareness and that takes us all by surprise! The MIBFF wants to deal with issues and present works that raise questions, that provoke, that make us smile, that leave us perplexed, that shock us... A fresh new look at black cinema from the four corners of the globe! www.montrealblackfilm.com .

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Get all the Festival news at:

www.montrealblackfilm.com / www.facebook.com/BlackFilmFestival / www.twitter.com/filmblackmtl

For further information, interview requests or material, please contact:

Carla Beauvais: carla@montrealblackfilm.com or (438) 868-5450

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Birmingham Sunday September 15, 1963

The four girls killed in the bombing (Clockwise from top left,
Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley,
Carole Robertson and Denise McNair)

In Birmingham, Alabama, a senseless, racially motivated  attack occured on September 15, 1963. Members of the Ku Klux Klan dynamited the basement of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church during Sunday School and 4 little girls lost their lives, Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Denise McNair (age 11), Carole Robertson (age 14), and Cynthia Wesley (age 14) died and 22 other people were injured on that fateful Sunday.


While it's important to remember these terroristic acts of bigotry and cowardice it is even more important to remember that the children of Birmingham were not simply victims. The children of Birmingham, in the face of grave personal peril, courageously played a vital role in the acquisition of their civil rights. They left a legacy, which must be acknowledged and continued in order for their acts to not have been done in vain.
Web Prospector


Birmingham’s Child Heroes      
By Steve Theunissen
(excerpt)
"And so it was that on May 2nd, more than one thousand Black students skipped school and congregated at the 16th Street Baptist church ready to march downtown. Police Chief Eugene “Bull” Connor marshaled his forces against them. Coming out of the church in waves of 50, the students were arrested and carted off in police vans. Soon, however, there were no vans left and the police had to recruit school busses. Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent goal of filling the jails was being realized.
The next day hundreds more children turned up at 16th Street Baptist, ready and willing to be carted off to jail."

see the complete article at 
http://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2012/09/08/birminghams-child-heroes/

African Image

Masque blanc, population Punu, Gabon. Bois, pigments dont kaolin. Musée du quai Branly.
Author Ji-Elle

You don't have to be an art critic to know beauty when you see it. It's time for Africans the world over to truly appreciate that which we sprang from. African Art and Architecture is as beautiful and creative as any in the world. When we acquaint ourselves and our children with this legacy we will open the gateway to a past which we have been longing for.

Harry Belafonte to Receive 2012 Humanitarian Award at Montreal International Black Film Festival

Montreal, September 6, 2012 – The legendary HARRY BELAFONTE will receive the Montreal International Black Film Festival's 2012 HUMANITARIAN PRIZE on opening night, Wednesday, September 19, 2012, at Cinéma Impérial, at 7 p.m. The MIBFF is granting Belafonte this award for his amazing contributions to the Civil Rights Movements as well as for his incredible selfless and dedicated efforts in addressing injustice and inequality in whatever form they took, even at the risk of his own wellbeing. In other words, for making the world a much better place.
"It is a tremendous honour and a real privilege for all of us to welcome the living legend, Harry Belafonte, to Montreal and to honour him with the very first Montreal International Black Film Festival's 2012 Humanitarian Prize. Giving him this award is also an excellent way for us to recognize the true value of his spirit that goes far beyond the Award-winning singer and movie star everyone knows. His constant fight for human rights have allowed people from all over the world to believe, hope, break down barriers and achieve great things," said Fabienne Colas, president and founder of the MIBFF.
The tribute to Harry Belafonte on September 19 will be followed by the screening of the opening film, Darrell Roodt's WINNIE, presented by Global Montreal, co-produced by Equinoxe Films and starring Oscar- and Grammy-award-winning Jennifer Hudson and Oscar-nominated Terrence Howard.