MPENZI BLACK WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL Rating: NNN
None of the short films at Mpenzi – a fest spanning straight and queer black sensibilities – is mind-bogglingly good, but taken together, they do exactly what a festival like this wants to do: build community and get audiences talking.
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Though Laurie Townshend‘s Hairstory: A Loc Doc, for example, about black women’s complicated relationship to their hair, doesn’t mine new territory – Da Kink’s Trey Anthony actually appears – the commentary on class and the sequences featuring under-five-year-old girls make their points.
Sabrina Moella‘s I Love You is a sweet little quickie about a lovers’ quarrel. Look for some beautiful images in Inkanyezi Yobusuku (Night Star), Kekeletso Khena‘s exploration of the experience of Zulu women during their periods. She evokes the erotic potential in the segregation of the sexes – something not specific to Zulu culture. (Sappho, for example, thrived on it.)
There’s big fun in Jay Dreams, Jai Brooks and Catherine Pancake‘s primer on dyke labels like butch and femme with some appealing characters riffing on monogamy, casual sex and pushing the boundaries of relationships.
And Grace Channer‘s six-minute animated – and beautiful – But Some Are Brave is a fitting tribute to those who fought to break the chains of slavery.
Without them, none of these films would exist.
Screens Friday (March 27) at the Medical Sciences Building.
