// Presented as part of March's Contemporary Black Cinema Series //
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu / 2016, BAMcinématek New Voices in Black Cinema, Charlotte Black Film Festival, Martha's Vineyard, Martinique, Pan African Film Festival, Rome, San Francisco Black Film Festival, Sole Luca Doc Festival / 65'
Born to an Italian mother and a Ghanian father, filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu embarks on an inquiry into the history of black performers onscreen in Italy since the advent of cinema itself, some one hundred years ago. Framed as a quest for his own identity, Kudjo Kuwornu meticulously chronicles the subjugation of black identity in early portrayals alongside the obstacles that even the most famous black performers face in the country today.
Melding individual and collective experiences of exploitation with a particular study of cinema history, Blaxploitalian's findings apply to multi-faceted aspects of Italian culture as well as the entertainment industry as a whole. Kudjo Kuwornu's third documentary film premiered at Rome, Martinique, Martha's Vineyard and the Pan African Film Festival and has screened at over a dozen universities across the world.
Trailer
Interview
In an exclusive interview with Filmatique, Fred Kudjo Kuwornu discusses diversity in film, the recent success of Black Panther and his next projects.
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Press
"A sweeping documentary inspired by Leonardo De Franceschi's seminal collection L'Africa in Italia as well as [Kudjo Kuwornu's] own experiences in the Italian film industry, Blaxploitalian recounts the century-long yet under-appreciated history of people of African descent in Italian cinema"
- Camilla Hawthorne, Film Review, Doppiozero
"Blaxploitalian is a diasporic, hybrid, critical, and cosmopolitan dimension documentary that uncovers the careers of a population of entertainers seldom heard from before: Black actors in Italian cinema. Blaxploitalian cleverly discloses the personal struggles classic Afro-Italian and African diasporic actors faced, correlating it with the contemporary actors who work diligently to find respectable and significant roles. More than an unveiling of history, it is a call-to-action for increased diversity and esteem in international cinema"
- Kira Thurman, Film Review, H-Black-Europe
"Fascinating doc Blaxploitalian surveys the history of blackness in Italian cinema... His project— tracing the onscreen appearance of black performers over a century— involves not only film history but also Italian politics and cultural shifts. This leads to some startling discoveries, such as the 1943 fascist propaganda film Harlem Knockout, which used African-American prisoners of war in its boxing scenes. Kuwornu also explores Italian colonialism in Africa, including Benito Mussolini's conquest of Somalia. This history may have been whitewashed in modern Italy, he argues, but the colonial image of Africans— exoticized women and fearsome men— lingers in contemporary portrayals"
- Serena Donadoni, Film Review, The Village Voice
"Blaxploitalian cleverly discloses the personal struggles classic Afro-Italian and African diasporic actors faced, correlating it with the contemporary actors who work diligently to find respectable and significant roles. It is a film about black actors as well as a critical analysis about diversity and typecasting in all the international media industry"
- Film Review, Istituto Italiano di Cultura San Francisco
"Blaxploitalian is such an important work. It continues the conversation about Blacks in the west. It joins forces with W.E.B. DuBois (Double Counsciousness); Paul Gilroy (Black Atlantic); Stuart Hall and many other scholars and filmmaker who speak about "Black being both inside and outside the West." It reminds of the everlasting and slow changing forces of imperialism, and of course racism. It challenges old notions of national identity. It visualizes Gilroy's words 'Black survival depends on upon forging a new mean to build alliances above and beyond issues like language, religion, skin color and to a lesser extend gender' and makes them look back at us all"
- Dr. Sheril Antonio, Film Review, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
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