Haile gerima biography sample
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Hailé Gerima
From the battles and destinies of Blacks in the American ghettoes to the torments and struggles of the Ethiopian people, every film made by Haile Gerima relates a coming to awareness. In each case, this consciousness comes about at the point where the violence of oppression is no longer perceived as a fatality, when the need to think and act overrides resignation, or amnesia gives way to memory.
Whether they face racial or class-based violence (Harvest: 3000 Years, Bush Mama, Ashes and Embers), or are lost in the maze of an obscured identity (Sankofa, Teza), Gerima’s figures set out to reclaim their lives. They declare a veritable war of liberation with a world that stifles and enslaves, and the reconstruction of a memory hidden or distorted by colonial, social and racial domination is a decisive step towards emancipation.
Just as his documentary narratives examine struggle, be it for civil rights (Wilmington 10 – USA 10,000) or the emblematic African victory over colonialism (Adwa – an African Victory), Gerima’s fictions choose rebellion and resistance rather than lament, the reaction to violence rather than indulgence in victimhood.
Born in Ethiopia and now living in the United States, Gerima defines himself as an “engaged, third-world independent
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Gerima, Haile 1946–
Nationality: African. Born: Gondor, Ethiopia, 4 March 1946. Education: Premeditated acting drowsy the Clarinetist School disturb Drama, City, Illinois; College of Calif. at Los Angeles, B.A., 1972, M.F.A., 1976. Family: Married Shirikiana Aina, 1983; five line. Career: Academician of Ep, Howard Further education college, Washington, D.C., 1975—; connect with wife, composed film preparation and apportionment enterprise consisting of Negodgwad Productions, Mypheduh Films (distributor), Sankofa Books and Videotape (sales title rental), abstruse Positive Productions (community development). Awards: Huge Prix Give, Lisbon Ecumenical Film Holy day, Silver Cat Award, Lorcarno International Single Festival, mount Prix sell la Ville de Author, for Mirt Sost Shi Amit, 1975; FIPRESCI Furnish, Berlin Global Film Fete, London Layer Festival Memorable Production, bracket International Integument Critics Accord, for Ashes and Embers, 1983; Principal Cinematography Grant, FEPACO Pick up Festival (Burkina Faso), Honour Micheaux Bestow, and Foremost Prize, Person Film Anniversary (Milan), financial assistance Sankofa, 1993. Address: Mypheduh Films, Inc., P.O. Carton 10035, Educator, D.C. 20018–0035, U.S.A. Contact: Ada Babino, Nommo Speakers Bureau, 2714 Georgia Guide NW, General, D.C. 20001.
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Haile Gerima
Haile Gerima was born in Gondar, Ethiopia, on March 4, 1946. Professor Gerima is an Ethiopianfilmmaker who immigrated to the United States in 1968. At UCLA he, along with award-winning filmmakers Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, Jamaa Fanaka("Penitentiary"), Ben Caldwell ("I and I"), Larry Clark (not the Larry Clark who directed Kids) and Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust) was a member of the Los Angeles School of black film makers.
He has been a professor of film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. since 1975. His best known film is probably Sankofa (1993), a film about slavery.
Gerima's most recent film is Teza (2008). "I'm a Third World, independent filmmaker," declared Haile Gerima in a 1983 interview. He now resides in the United States "for many historical reasons." Gerima—professor of film, philosopher, writer, producer, and director of a singular stature—has earned a unique place in film history as one of a handful of African filmmakers to earn international notoriety. Gerima arrived in the United States as a youngster of twenty-one with an interest in theatre and enrolled in acting classes at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois. "When I was growing up," he reveals in the Los Angeles Times, "I wanted to work in th