Simone Wijmans - New black TV news anchor in The Netherlands

Simone Weimans will be the new TV news anchor in The Netherlands for the NOS morning and day shows. Starting June 15th she will also be a news editor, the NOS (the Dutch BBC) announced today.

The 39-year old Weimans, who was born in The Netherlands to Surinamese parents, presented the current affairs radio program Dichtbij Nederland of the NPS and several other programs.

Weimans started as a radio journalist for the Radio Netherlands Worldwide during her study Communication Science. After graduating in 1998 she worked for the Dutch public broadcasting company VARA and for several programs on public Radio 1, 2 and 5. Currently she is involved in the radio program De Gids.FM on Radio 1 and De heer Ontwaakt (The Lord Awakens) on Radio 2.

Wijmans is the third black news anchor for the NOS since 1965.

Simone Weimans - My Strawberry Earth Moment


The first black news anchors in Europe

Colour Bar - Belgian-Congolese Mixed Race in Search of his identity (interview)

Roland Gust was born to a Congolese mother and a Belgian father. He grew up in Congo, believing he was white. That is, until his family decided to return to Belgium when he was twelve. Twenty years later, in a recently released documentary, Colour Bar, we follow him in his desire to find a grammar to describe his past. 5 Questions for Roland Gust.– Tom Devriendt (from Africa is a Country)

Read this very interesting interview at Africa is a Country - The Belgian Color Bar

Gunst is a film maker and musician who spend the last 5 years making a documentary about his search for identity. He is also a friend of Afro-Europe blogger Sibo who wrote a story about his film "Colour Bar", you can read it here


For a translation in English click the "CC" button on the right.

Kwame Kwei-Armah on multicultural Britain

Black British actor, playwright and director Kwame Kwei Armah is featured by the British Foreign Office to mark two years to go until London 2012.

In a film Kwame Kwei-Armah discusses why he believes the UK is now the centre of the Black diaspora world and how it’s a country of diverse cultures.

The film is one of the ‘See Britain through my eyes,’ series featuring individuals from home and abroad talking about their experiences of modern Britain in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Watch the film below.



In the film Kwame talks about a television series he presented for Channel 4 in 2009, where he re-created the Queen’s 1953/54 tour of the Commonwealth. Kwame discovered that many people across the Commonwealth still thought that the makeup of British society was much like it was in the 1950s as opposed to the diverse, modern nation it is today. Kwame was glad he was chosen to front the programme as he was able to personally vouch for the UK’s multiculturalism.

Kwame also discusses how proud he is of the progress Britain has made in reducing inequality in society. He thinks Britain today is a tolerant country, comfortable in its own skin, where tradition and modernity can co-exist.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is a celebrated actor, playwright and director both in the UK and overseas. He recently served as Artistic Director of the World festival of black arts and culture in Senegal and has just been appointed Artistic Director of Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.

He was born in London as Ian Roberts. He changed his name in his early twenties after tracing his family history (through the slave trade) to his ancestral roots in Ghana. His parents were born in Grenada, then a British colony and moved to the UK in the 1960s.

The film launch coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the Tricycle Theatre in London where Kwame has staged many of his productions. The theatre has a strong reputation for hosting plays that reflect the cultural diversity of Britain and not afraid to tackle contemporary issues and events head on.

Kwame first found fame as an actor in the popular BBC hospital drama ‘Casualty.’ He became the first Black Briton to stage a play in London’s West End when his award winning piece ‘Elmina’s Kitchen transferred to the Garrick Theatre in 2005.’

Kwame Kwei-Armah is a celebrated British actor, playwright and director both in the UK and overseas. He recently served as Artistic Director of the World festival of black arts and culture in Senegal and has just been appointed Artistic Director of Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.

Vote for favorite film of Shadow and Act Filmmaker Digital Showcase

The Showcase is an online short film competition where viewers vote for their favorite films and the winning filmmakers receive cash prizes. Each of the 5 (1 every 2 months) qualifying round winner receives $1,000; final round grand prize winner receives an additional $4,000.

Winners will be determined by the number of votes they receive in each round. Among non-winning entries, one film will be announced as the popular winner at the end of the season based on cumulative votes received and awarded $1,000. Crucial submission criteria: films had to feature a protagonist of African descent and themes reflective of the African Diaspora experience.

See all the films here.

Check out the 1st film on the list (in alphabetical order).

Dutch film Sonny Boy reaches Platinum status

Dutch feature film SONNY BOY, directed and written by Maria Peters, has reached the status of Platinum Film. More than 400.000 tickets have been sold since the theatrical release of the movie in the Netherlands on January 27, 2011.

SONNY BOY is the adaptation of the bestselling novel by Annejet van der Zijl, based on the true story of the forbidden love between two apparently ordinary people: Rika, a typical Dutch mother of four children, and Waldemar, a Surinam man seventeen years her junior. Their love can survive all the presumptions and obstructions of the cruel world outside, but is finally unable to cope with the brutal and devastating power of war.

The Golden/Platinum/Diamond Film Award is an initiative presented by the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund since 2001. The prize is intended to encourage the Dutch film industry and motivate the general public to go and see Dutch films. The total number of tickets sold after a film’s release determines whether a prize is awarded.

See Film: Sonny Boy - A Dutch interracial love story

An actor's response to no ethnic minorities in English village drama

A black British actor responded in the Guardian to the remarks of Midsomer Murders producer Brian True-May who said Midsomer "wouldn't be the English village" with ethnic minorities. If you have missed it read the story here.

The actor felt he had to remain anonymous because of possible repercussions.

He wrote: “I have trained at one of the most eminent drama schools in the UK and have over 20 years of experience in TV, theatre, radio and film. The broadcasting decision-makers – executive producers, producers, directors, casting directors, writers, and even our agents, who are meant to be on our side – are aware that True-May's ramblings are not isolated.

They are aware that it is being thought, that it is being actioned, and yet for the most part they do nothing to put a halt to this discrimination, allowing it to continue year after year."

He felt that actors were afraid to speak out because of the consequences. Read the full story at the www.guardian.co.uk.

But black actors in other European countries also face the same problems. In a debate in The Netherlands a director posed the question, why you should use a black actor in a stage play if your audience is always white.

In Bollywood and Nollywood they don’t have these problems, this is a typical European thing; black actors on white stages. And the inconvenient truth is that these white stages and films make good money without black actors. It's clear multiculturalism has never worked.

But this debate has been going on for years now and apparently not much has changed. So perhaps there is only one option left, a European Tyler Perry who serves us black reality shows.

Read more about this story at Madnews

Ethnic minorities don't belong in my English village drama, says UK TV producer

Via Madnews: The producer and co-creator of the hit English TV drama Midsomer Murders has been suspended after telling The Radio Times in an interview that there was no place in the series for ethnic minorities.

He claimed the shows success because of its all-white cast

Producer Brian True-May said, "We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough … We’re the last bastion of English-ness and I want to keep it that way.

Maybe I’m not politically correct … I’m trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don’t want to change it." See the full story at The List



I am not surprised that it's the English drama policy for English village series. I use to watch these English drama series with titles like "Murder in Cambridge", but somehow I never wondered why I never saw a Black or Asian person drinking tea with the vicar.

But that's danger of these images, they make you believe it's normal.

Film: "Black Brown White" co-starring Clare-Hope Ashitey (Austria)

"Black Brown White" is an Austrian feature film about a young Nigerian woman (Jackie) who is on the run across Sahara heading north, hoping to find a way of reaching Switzerland and finding the father of her son, a Swiss UN-employee who was once based in Nigeria. She is hoping he will provide education for her son.

Jackie is played by 24 year old Clare-Hope Ashitey who is a British actress of Ghanaian descent. The film is produced by Allegro Film from Austria and is released on February 2011.



Synopsis

Don Pedro (Fritz Karl) is a 35-year-old truck driver. Together with his paraplegic partner Jimmy (Karl Markovics), he operates a small freight shipping. Over the years they have devised an elaborate, nifty but also illegal system whereby they smuggle African refugees to Europe.

Jackie (Clare-Hope Ashitey), a young Nigerian woman, is on the run across the Sahara going north, her son Emanuel (Theo Caleb Chapman) at her side.

Their destination is Geneva, where the boy’s father, a Swiss UN-employee, lives. At the border between Africa and Europe, Pedro, Jackie and Emanuel meet for the first time.

But Jackie refuses to be treated as the other fugitives, who are locked in a hidden compartment in the truck. Against his better judgment, Don Pedro goes along with her request and together they make their way to Europe.

Show civil courage - Austrian and American Anti-Racism videos

Video: Airplain
Woman: "I can't sit here, it's an affront."
Steward: "It's really an affront that 'you' have to sit here. That's why we have a replacement seat for you in the business class."

The video is from the Austrian Anti-Racism organisation ZARA, which I spotted on the FB of Black Germans. ZARA wants to enhance civil courage and promote an Austrian society free of racism. The next video is also from the organisation.

Video:Muslim woman

Men: "Can't you speak German, go back to your country."

But the 'victims' in the Zara videos look a little bit passive.

The next videos are American videos.

This video is entitled "What Would You Do? Racism In An Upscale Store". ABCNews shot a video in a Soho boutique where a racist clerk and security guard harassed a black shopper. They wanted to see if fellow shoppers would do anything to stop the harassment.



And maybe this is what you should do.

Film: Otham Karim's 'För kärleken' starring Danny Glover (Sweden)

Photo: Director Othman Karim and actors Peter Gardiner and Tuva Novotny
Othman Karim is the director of the Swedish film 'För kärleken' ('Dear Alice'). The film was released in 2010 and received a lot of attention in Scandinavia because Karim casted Danny Glover in the film. Glover plays a newly arrived immigrant from Gambia.

För kärleken (Dear Alice) centers on four people whose fates intertwine on one day when the decisions they make will have life-shattering results.

Othman Karim (born 19 March 1968) is a Swedish film director, documentary producer, television presenter and photographer.



Karim came to Sweden from Uganda in 1975 when his family fled Idi Amin's reign. He has studied at Brooks Institute of Photography, followed by employment with Steven Spielberg's production company Amblin Entertainment.

Plot: Very different lives, becomes interweaved during what seems like an ordinary day. Franzis Namazi (Danny Glover) is a newly arrived immigrant from Gambia to Sweden.

He is about to give up on his little store selling African art. Karin Carlsson-Said (Tuva Novotny) is a lawyer who is about to enter a new important step in her career as a lawyer.

Her husband Moses (Peter Gardiner) must send money to his hospitalized father in Uganda, but there are problems with the transaction and has issues with keeping up his work as a Social Worker.

Bosse (Ulf Brunnberg) is the TV star who finds out he has been fired off his own show and finds his young wife with another man, Håkan (Stefan Sauk) is a charming celebrity with an alcohol problem and now once again needs help from his lawyer Karin Carlsson-Said.

English interview with Othman Karim here

S&A Filmmaker Challenge Winner “Black Swan Theory” By Nikyatu Jusu Debuts!

The US film blog Shadow And Act shows the completed 1st film of the Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge series. It's brought to you by Shadow And Act Films LLC; Nikyatu Jusu’s Black Swan Theory. See the post on Afro-Europe about the competition here.

Synopsis: A psychiatric casualty of war, recently returned to the US, Sonya’s imagined sense of normalcy crumbles around her; she must hunt or become the hunted.

To view the film go to Shadow and Act here and CLICK THE IMAGE to play the 12-minute film. You will need a broadband connection to view the film.

Video: 'With Wings and Roots' - Defining culture and belonging by people with immigrant parents

They ask: "Where are you really from?"
Via Der Schwarze Blog

Currently in production, 'With Wings And Roots' is a feature-length documentary and new media project set in Berlin and New York that explores what gets termed assimilation in the USA and integration in Germany.

The English subtitled trailer of 'With Wings And Roots'


The german trailer 'Wo kommst du wirklich her?' (Where are you really from) of Wings and roots, but with English speaking people and German subtitles


Set in two countries currently struggling with immigration and national identity, the film tells the stories of six children of immigrants from diverse backgrounds who are striving to expand their definitions of belonging. A wedding, a new career, applying for citizenship – through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the protagonists go through personal rites of passage, each facing questions identity and belonging and finding different ways to root themselves.

'With Wings And Roots' takes a transnational approach to explore how young people in one old and one new immigration society are redefining culture, citizenship, race, and belonging in this era of unprecedented global migration.

Website at: www.withwingsandroots.com

Film: Sonny Boy - A Dutch interracial love story

Sonny Boy is a Dutch big budget film based on the true story of a forbidden love between a black Surinamese man and a Dutch white woman that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century in the Netherlands. The film is an adaptation of the bestselling novel "Sonny Boy" of Annejet van der Zijl.

The Dutch film Sonny Boy opens in 1928 and tells the c story of Waldemar, a 19-year-old black student from Suriname (then part of the Netherlands), and a married Dutchwoman in her 40s, Rika, who fall head over heels in love.

A first test of the strength of their love arrives when they discover that she is pregnant. A second one arrives more than a decade later, when they hide several Jews in their home during WWII.

The film is directed by Dutch director Maria Peters.

The premiere was on January 27th.




About the book

Sonny Boy (and some pictures of the real family)

‘Sonny Boy’, the title of an Al Jolson song from 1928, was the nickname given to Waldemar Nods and Rika van der Lans’ little boy. 1928 was the year their impossible love began, a love they kept alive against all the odds.

The contrast could not have been greater: Waldemar was a seriousminded black student from Paramaribo in Surinam, not yet twenty, son of a gold prospector and grandson of a woman who had yet to free herself from the chains of slavery; Rika was the daughter of a Catholic potato wholesaler, warm-hearted and obstinate, a married mother of four, approaching forty when they met. She was his landlady. When he moved in she had only just left her husband and was penniless, living with her children in a tiny rented apartment in The Hague.

Drawing on archives, correspondence and interviews with family members, Annejet van der Zijl has reconstructed their astonishing love story. When Rika became pregnant the scandal was complete; her own family responded no less harshly than the outside world. Didn’t Waldemar came from a culture where male fidelity was notoriously lacking? And who would look after the moski moski, as the Surinamese would call him, the little brown-skinned boy with dark curls and blue eyes? They had no work, no money, no friends, and the Depression had begun. Perhaps hardest of all, Rika lost her other children after a fierce battle in which her husband was awarded custody.

Contrary to all expectations, the ‘impossible’ but hard-working and harmonious couple managed to create a prosperous business that generated a good income. Under Waldemar and Rika’s unconventional management, Pension Walda became a favourite haunt of revue artistes, colonials on leave from the East Indies, and German seaside holidaymakers. (On the photo 'Sonny boy' with his father on the beach in Scheveningen.)

But Sonny Boy is more than just a love story. It describes the everyday racism of the 1930s and the horrors of Nazism. When Pension Walda was requisitioned by the Germans during the occupation, Waldemar and Rika moved to a house where they soon had guests of a different kind: Jews in hiding. In 1944 they were betrayed and arrested. Both died in captivity. (On the photo 'Sonny boy' with his father on the beach in Scheveningen.)

Sonny Boy, in whom they invested all their desperate hopes and dreams, was left behind, alone. Annejet van der Zijl has done an excellent job of interweaving the personal history of one specific couple with the larger mainstream history of crisis, war and betrayal. (See source here.) In the picture (left) the present-day Sonny Boy.

Black critique

But there is some black criticism on the film. The extra dimension is of course the relationship between a white Dutch woman and a Surinamese black man, but some question if even by present-day standards a relationship between 19 year old black male and a divorced white woman of almost 40 with two children would be regarded as a “normal” relationship.

To some extend I agree with the criticism, somehow it seems that because Waldemar is black and “exotic” different norms apply.

Colour Bar: A Belgian-Congolese Mixed Race in Search of His Identity. DVD OUT NOW!

My friend Roland Gunst is a film maker and musician who spend the last 5 years making a documentary about his search for identity. His film is entitled ‘Colour Bar’ and was first screened at the Mixed 2010 expo that we organized together last year and has been screened several times in Belgium since. It will soon be scheduled on national TV here in Belgium but it is now out and for sale on DVD (with subtitles in English, French and Dutch). You can purchase it via the website www.colourbar.be
Personally I think the film is of a high esthetic and informative quality. It is bilingual French/Dutch as the voice over is in French (his mother tongue) while many interviews were done in Dutch (his ‘father tongue’). He talks to several mixed race Belgians about their search for identity.

The film is a message to his parents. He tells us how in Congo he was considered white and called ‘mundele’ while when coming to Belgium as a 12 year old he suddenly was considered black and called ‘neger’. His search for identity has been dominated by this racial perspective.

Below the official trailer (unfortunately, no English subtitles)


For those who understand some Dutch (with a Flemish/Belgian accent), check this video featuring footage which didn’t make it in the final version of the documentary. This was a pre-trailer. The central question is: ‘My name is Roland Gunst. Who am I?’ (Mijn naam is Roland Gunst. Wie ben ik?)

Spike Lee talks to black filmmakers and fans in Amsterdam

Spike Lee was in Amsterdam. On Tuesday he also talked in Amsterdam South East (the Bijlmer) with young Dutch black filmmakers and fans.

Spike Lee was at the Stadsschouwberg Amsterdam as a guest of The John Adams Institute and Binger Film Lab on December 14th, to talk about his work, politics, race, identity and inspiration. And to promote his book with photographs and interviews of his success film "Do the right thing".



The newspaper Het Parool and Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported some of the questions, answers and quotes of the meeting in Amsterdam South East with the black filmmakers and fans. You can listen to some audio here.

Question from the audiance: why are there so few black actors in science fiction films. And what can young Antilleans and Surinamese learn from the African-American civil rights struggle.

Spike Lee: "I am a filmmaker, not Obi Wan Kenobi. What I do know is that education is the key to a better future. In America there are more black boys in jail then on high school. I hope things are better here."

When asked if the negative portrayal of African-Americans has come to an end now that Obama is president, Lee replied: "blacks in films are rappers, drug dealers or just idiots. That hasn’t changed, not even after Obama."

Lee continued: "American films influence the way people in the entire world talk, walk and think. But the gatekeepers in Hollywood protect the influence. Will Smith is almost the biggest star of the whole world, but he also has no access to the real power."

Lee tells his audience that it is likely that Obama will not be re-elected. "There are more death threats against Obama than any of the previous presidents of America. And that's of course because he is colored."

One of the fans of Spike Lee's is Irish Verwey. She agrees with Spike Lee that you have use your own talent to make the film you want. "There is talent," says Verwey, "but it is not bundled. This was a great moment of inspiration to achieve something together. Spike Lee does not have to come and help us, we must do it ourselves."

But Spike Lee has promised he will return to Amsterdam to attend a premiere of a Dutch black film.

Film: "For Colored Girls" - In UK Cinema Dec. 10th + Review

"For Colored Girls" is the new film of Tyler Perry. The film brings to the screen Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-winning play, a poetic exploration of what is to be of color and a female in this world. The film opens in the UK on the 10th of December.

According to the UK webmagazine Catch a Vibe one of the criticisms about the film was that the male characters had no redeeming qualities. Michael O’sullivan’s review in the Washington Post pretty much described For Colored Girls as male-bashing galore ‘It paints a bleak picture of masculinity as the domain of liars and thieves, paranoid alcoholics, unemployed moochers, adulterers, sex addicts and paedophiles.



The magazine expects that For Colored Girls will polarise UK audiences. "You’ll either love it or hate it, there really is no middle ground here. Perry’s latest endeavour isn’t perfect and could benefit from a more experienced director and a well-developed script, but—if given a chance—For Colored Girls might surprise you in a good way or maybe not."

About Tyler Perry the New York Times wrote. "Tyler Perry has been led out to critical slaughter so many times, it might seem a wonder that he continues to make movies. Except that Mr. Perry addresses his movies to black audiences and, until recently, has shown relatively little interest in crossing over. His enormous commercial success with a mainly black audience and the often ferociously hostile reviews from mostly white critics might seem symptomatic of an insurmountable racial divide. Black people love him and white people don’t get him, and that sort of thing, which might be somewhat true but ignores that another important dividing line runs along taste and not color."

But Perry does know how to pick his cast, the film stars Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine, Michael Ealy, Kimberly Elise, Omari Hardwick, Hill Harper, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Macy Gray.

Filmmaker Euzhan Palcy Hounoree of the French Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards

Filmmaker Euzhan Palcy is the Honouree of the French Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards 2010

Euzhan Palcy is a film director writer and producer from Martinique, French West Indies. Notable for being the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM) for "A Dry White Season" the only female filmmaker who directed Marlon Brando (she brought him back to the screen).

In 2006 Euzhan Palcy was one the artists who was featured in the commercial-free presentation "Infiniti In Black", which was sponsored by Nissan Motors for the Black History Month.

Film: “RISE UP” Stories from Jamaica's music underground

Photo: Turbulence "Notorious"
RISE UP is a feature-length documentary which shines a spotlight on Jamaica’s underground music scene by focusing on 3 young artists – Kemoy Lewis, Ice Anastasia (now performing as ‘Juss Ice’) and Turbulance who, when the film was made 7 years ago, was still an ‘upcoming artist’, and who has now become a successful reggae star.

The film is directed by Argentina-born Luciano Blotta and produced by Jamaicans Mark Hart and Carlo ‘Amlak’ Less and premiered on October 27, 2010 in Kingston Jamaica. But the film has already been screened in over 20 countries.





For trailers of the interviews go to video's at www.riseupmovie.com

Read more at the www.jamaicaobserver.com

Read an interesting review on the blog jamediapro

Video: Black - "On the Sunny side of the Alps" (Slovenia)

Because Slovenia has elected its first black mayor it's time for some African-Slovene cinema.

The short Slovene film (trailer) "On the Sunny side of the Alps" was a response to racist and xenophobic events in Slovenia. The name of the film refers to the slogan of a promotion campaign of the Slovene Tourist Board which wanted to present Slovenia in the best possible light.

The film is about two typical Slovenian families who live in an Alpine idyll, until one of them buys a new car…


The film is well meant, but it's clear that black people are a novelty in this part of Europe.

Official website at www.nasoncnistranialp.com

Teaser Trailer For “Black Swan Theory” By Nikyatu Jusu (Filmmaker Challenge Winner)

In August the film Blog Shadow And Act announced Nikyatu Jusu and her screenplay "Black Swan Theory" the winner of the Shadow and Act film Challenge. Here’s a first look teaser trailer.

The synopsis again for the 12-minute film: a psychiatric casualty of war recently returned to the US, Sonya’s imagined sense of normalcy crumbles around her; she must hunt or become the hunted.