Summary Of The Film, Sankofa, And Shola

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

The Slave narrative documentary; Unchained Memories, released in 2003, brought to light many things that had not before been seen, or even thought of by many people. Even before the film was released, the telling of the stories inside changed many ideas regarding slavery. The history of slavery in the United States of America has always been commonly known, but not many people have, at this point in time, had to really think of what that meant, what slavery truly was to the millions of Africans, and African-Americans who experienced it. The film and the stories themselves changed many people’s views on slavery, by enlightening them.

The movie Sankofa, directed by Haile Germina, is a movie the follows the story of Mona, who's a model on a photo shoot for a white photographer, in a castle in Ghana, where apparently she doesn't know the sad historic weigh the place carries of her ancestors. While in her photo shoot she is told by a mysterious musician, to go back to her roots, something that seemed to had confused her. Later on while in the castle ruins she is transported to the past where she lives the life of a slave named Shola, who was abused by her owner and later on fights and rebels against her masters together with Shango, her love interest, and other slaves, like Nunu, who's son was of mixed race and converted to Christianity, raised by one of the white men and turned against his own people. After the rebellion Mona returns to the present and with a better understanding of her roots and the suffering of her descendants.

The movie Sankofa takes place on the coast of Ghana. Mona travels back to the past to reclaim her identity. She becomes a house slave named Shola living on a plantation. She lives her life being raped and abused by her slave owner. Through this journey, Mona looks to find out who she really is through the people she meets, the African perception of identity, the meaning and connection to Sankofa, and what it suggests to Africans and non-Africans.

Though slavery is taught throughout ones education, the severeness of it isn’t usually explained how the documentary Africans in America: The Terrible Transformation explains it. Throughout school, students typically don’t examine how the racial prejudice that was associated with slavery was horrific in so many different ways. This documentary allows viewers to be

The Interesting Narrative conveys the first-hand experiences of an African who is stripped of the basic rights given to humans and is forced into slavery, while at the same this individual fights for freedom. This autobiography is a reliable source for historians, educators, and students. After analyzing the literature, I concluded that the autobiography’s main criteria included content, tone, perspective, and the structure of his writing. The authors ability to manipulate this criterion, allows for the successful creation of an environment that builds a connection between the audience and his journey.

This film highlights the flaws of humanity in a western world. The films ability to touch on topics of classism, prostitution, and alcoholism makes the content mature and unlike typical western films. This revolutionary and innovative western created a foundation for many future films. The sophistication of the content, and lack of adherence to the production code makes this film an “adult”

Sankofa was a great a film analyzing African culture by reliving events in the past to gain a greater understanding of self-identity. The film has several depictions of African culture through its characters as they each portrayed a different stage of acceptance. Millione’s black conscious scale assists with understanding the acceptance of African culture and

The presentation of a 150 year timeline of Black newspapers: from their roots during the Reconstruction period, to their “deaths” shortly after the Civil Rights Movement through various aids proved the film’s strength. The use of actual photographers, journalists, and editors from the Black newspapers solidified this film’s sincerity; it allowed the people that actually lived through those changes and events to recount their stories. Even when it profiled different people from the past, the filmmakers used voiceovers that fit each character, facilitating the film’s narrative. These qualities elevated the movie and enhanced the understanding of it overall.

Although Nair made use of this interracial archetype, the talented director was, nevertheless, able to humanize Meena and Demetrius’s love throughout the life of the film which should unequivocally be one of the seven wonders of the world. Plus, she was able to manage a multitude of subplots—hypocrisy in interracial interactions such as when Jammubhai slyly suggests to Demetrius that “all us people of color must stick together”—without taking focus away from the overlying message which takes serious prowess and skill

By employing themes such as psychosexual fantasies, race, gender, and violence, artist Kara Walker reconstructs and explores the history and effects of American slavery on American culture. Although being called names like notorious, revolting, anti-progressive, and shameless, she continues to be a pioneer of bringing the unspeakable aspects of American slavery that are not commonly discussed and are left out of the history books to the foreground of public discussion.

millions of Americans watched the story of a young African stolen into slavery and taken to colonial America. It begins with the birth of Kunta Kinte in 1750 in an African village and ends seven generations later after a monumental struggle to achieve freedom and dignity against overwhelming odds. Lou Gossett Jr. as the house servant, Fiddler, gives one of the finest performances ever seen on

Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, released in 1997, challenges the pervasive stereotyping of not only blacks but specifically black women. Nowhere is the cinematic devaluation of African Americans more evident than in images of black women which, in the history of cinematography, the white ideal for female beauty has overlooked. The portrayal of black women as the racial Extra has been fabricated through many semblances in the history of American film. Film scholars and feminists alike have long been plagued with lament for the negativity and stereotyping that sticks with black women in American cinema. In this paper, I will argue that Jackie Brown highlights and stresses the racial variance of the female African American protagonist,

When I first heard the name of this film, the first thing that came to my mind was the animal hyena. I thought, why this movie has this name? Hyenas are very intelligent and terrible animals; they outnumber lions and use their larger populations to compete with lions for food. After reading the interview of Djibril Diop Mambety, I understood the meaning of the name given to the film. In this movie, Mambety expressed his belief in the superior viewpoint of marginalized people. This film demonstrates that tradition is as bankrupt as modern capitalist social relations, that traditional belief systems inflict the illusion of a moral order where none exists or can exist, as human beings are slaves to circumstance and all their customs are

The film, “Price of Memory” is a very detail documentary that question the system of slavery and the memories that can