The magic of childbirth, the joy of a new family member, shattered when the arcane custom of male circumcision forever destroys the tiny child's genitals. You may not see it that way, however, NoCirc of Washington will present many valid arguments during an evening of videos questioning this "medical" procedure.

Saying No To Circumcision
The Nurses of St. Vincent Hospital in New Mexico unanimously stopped performing circumcisions. In this short documentary, the nurses to explain, in their own words, why they refuse to cut baby boys.

Who's Body Who's Right
This absorbing two part social issue documentary / narrative intends to educate viewers about seldom discussed issues outside the medical debate over routinely circumcising male newborns. It compassionately explores genital alteration of unconsenting children in a human rights context by examining US history of male/female circumcision, demystifying male anatomy, investigating long term consequences, revealing efforts toward healing and social change, and discussing constitutionality and ethics.

Opening Night: The Art of Blackness
Wednesday, February 18, 7:30 pm at Elliott Bay Bookstore
An evening of poetry and film featuring the works of local artists and special guest appearances.

"Love and the Life Black Gay and Lesbian Films" (Double Feature)
Thursday, February 19, 7:00 pm at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center

Watermelon Woman
(90 minutes)
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye plays a militant, aspiring film maker . When she isn't working in a video store she is researching blacks and their on-screen roles in the Hollywood studio system. When she comes across a previously unknown actress known as The Watermelon Woman, her research leads her to director Martha Page and a revelation. It's a light-hearted, original film that uses almost all conceivable style variations and moves between mock documentary and comedy, between almost real interviews and cleverly falsified archival footage. Funded by a grant from the NEA, this film met with controversy surrounding its' sex scene, said to be "the hottest dyke-sex scene on celluloid."

B.D. Women
(20 minutes)
Inge Blackman
This movie celebrates the history and culture of Black lesbians. Lively interviews feature Black women talking candidly about their sexual and racial identities. These interviews are cleverly interwoven witha dramatized love story set in the 1920's between a gorgeous jazz singer and her butch lover.

Ife
(5 minutes)
H. Len Keller
A day in the life of a black French lesbian in San Francisco. Ife loves women, but vows never to fall in love. Ife extols the beauty of women in San Francisco while she slowly cruises the city streets in a classic car. Her philosophy is that " you can never experience too many women."

Dakan - Destiny
9:30 pm (87 minutes)
Mohamed Camara
While "coming out" may have become prime time fare here, in the U.S. , this film was met with angry protests when it was shot in the director's native Guinea. Dakan is a contemporary African re-interpretation of the age-old Romeo and Juliet conflict between love and convention. It is a story about the confusion, isolation, and emotional experience of the two main characters, Sori and Manga, as they come out to a society that has no language which recognizes their love.

Short Mix: a taste of film and video from all over.
Friday, February 20, 7:00 pm at 911 Media Arts Center

Rituals
(21 minutes)
Carol Mayes
A woman tries to heal the problems in her marriage with help from her neighbor and friend, who recommends that "the spirits help. Between burning candles, performing rituals and a web of deception, she finds her own personal, feminine power is stronger than any magic. Starring Regina King, Isiah Washington and Jennifer Luis.

The Last Weekend
(40 Minutes)
Arun Vir
Sam and Anomie are facing the fact that their marriage is over. Sam, the estranged husband, returns home in an attempt to reclaim his family and win back the trust of his wife. Naomi, on the other hand has come to terms with the idea of divorcing her husband and leaving their home for a new life. Starring Suzanne Douglas and Ron Dorn.

I Bring You Frankincense
(32 Minutes)
Ngozi Onwurah
A film from one of Britain's Finest black, female film makers. Sunshine Brown, the only bi-racial boy in Guilford, suffers at school both for his coco complexion and his wild hippie mother. Set in the 70's, this is the story of how Sunshine comes to know who he is and grows into a man.

Medussa Talks
(6 minutes)
Omonike Akinyemi
A young black woman comes to terms with the isolation of her childhood and adolescence by locking her hair at a friend's home.

"It's All Good Hair,"
9:30 pm
a short mix

Two Dollars and a Dream
(56 minutes)
Stanley Nelson
This is a biography of Madame C.J. Walker, the child of slaves freed by the Civil War, who became America's First Self-Made Millionairess. Ms. Walker Ôs fortune was built on skin and hair care products. She parlayed a homemade beauty formula into a prosperous business, marketing her products from coast to coast, and changing black hair forever. Featuring a view of Black America from 1867 to the 1930's, rare film footage and music by the masters of that era.

Nappy
Lydia Douglas
This film addresses the myth of "good and bad hair." Nappy versus straight through a discussion between women who've made the choice of wearing their natural hair. including other "hair raising" stories.

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Short Mix with some local flavor
Saturday, February 21 , 4:30 pm at 911 Media Arts Center

Franz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask
7:00pm (52 minutes)
Isaac Julien
An exploration of the pre-eminent theorist of anti-colonial movements of this century. Fanon's two major works, Black Skin, White Mask, and the Wretched of the Earth were pioneering studies of the psychological impact of racism on both the colonized and the colonizer. This psycho-biography by the celebrated black British director, Isaac Julien weaves together the facts of Fanon's brief but eventful life, with readings, interviews, and dramatic reconstructions of key moments in his political evolution.

Last Angel in History
John Akomfrah
This cinematic essay poses science fiction as a metaphor for the Pan-African experience of forced displacement, cultural alienation and otherness. Akomfrah's film is rooted in an exploration of cultural works of Pan-African artists, such as funkmaster George Clinton and his Mothership Connection , Sun Ra's use of extraterrestrial iconography and the very explicit connection drawn between these issues in the writings of black science fiction authors. Features interviews with musicians, DJ Spooky, Goldie, Derek May, George Clinton, Astronaut Dr. Bernard Harris, Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, and more. It brings home how futuristic elements in Pan-African culture have always been tied to a whole history of both tradition and innovation.

All Power to the People
9:30 (116 minutes)
Lee Lew Lee
Out of the turmoil of the 60's emerged the Black Panther Party with a voice of hope for Blacks in the inner cities. Its message was thwarted by a threatened government, particularly the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover, who declared before Congress," The Black Panther Party is the greatest threat to the internal security of the U.S." The film traces the rise and fall of the Party, as it contrasts the initial idealism and integrity of its initiators (followed by its own share of megalomania narcissism) with the subterfuge and violence unleashed upon them by the FBI and CIA. Providing a bold panorama of the times, and revisiting a chapter of U.S. history that had been too easily shaped by those in power.

O Happy Day
(6 minutes)
Charles Lofton
A short film that blurs the difference between the Black Power movement and the Gay Power movement, and instead focuses on the similarities between the two. The soundtrack is punctuated by a quote from the Black Panther leader Huey Newton. "There's nothing to say that a homosexual cannot also be a revolutionary. Quite on the contrary, maybe a homosexual could be the most revolutionary."

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Sunday, February 22, 4:30 at 911 Medias Arts Center
FREE for KIDS
(to be announced)

Taafe Fanga / Skirt Power
7:00 pm (95 minutes)
Adama Drabo
A gender-bending farce set among the 18th century Dogon to make serious points about the status of women in Africa today. The Dogon believe that all difference in the universe began with the splitting of the primal fonio seed into an ever-expanding spiral of space-time which can only be held together by a careful balancing of "twinning" of opposing energies. In this film, the tension reappears in the parallel stories of four women who challenge male supremacy among the Dogon's legendary elf-like spirit ancestors, and their semi-historical human descendants, the Tellem. Drabo has received the Sigi myth ( which originally expressed male anxiety over female control of fecundity) into a myth about women's right to resist patriarchy, in the girot's words, to fight for the right to be different and equal."

Home Away from Home
(11 minutes)
Maureen Blackwood
A bitter sweet drama that unfolds almost entirely without dialogue. Miriam lives with her children in a cramped and dreary house near the airport. The planes overhead remind her of how far removed she is from her rural African roots. She constructs a beautiful mud hut in her garden, a magical space that takes her away from the loneliness of her suburban existence. Although her neighbors are intolerant, her daughter learns something about the African side of herself.

CLOSING NIGHT RECEPTION 10:00 pm (to be announced)