Beats of the Antonov
+Panel Discussion
+Free For Students
+Sudan
Friday, 11/6 at St. Anthony Main Theatre
3:00 p.m.
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Director: hajooj kuka
Documentary feature, 68 mins, 2014
Country: Sudan/South Africa
Languages: Arabic
Minnesota premiere
Synopsis: Sudan is doing whatever it can to get rid of the rebel forces in the Blue Nile areas and the Nuba mountains. Its way of doing this is to obliterate their base. Their base is the people, the villagers who have been forced to gather in mountain hideouts or refugee camps. Yet, the bombings continue and so does the rebellion. Kuka filmed on the ground for eighteen months, and the result is his film that takes the viewer through the lives of displaced people who lost family members, homes, farms and belongings. Instead of finding a devastated and defeated people we find a vibrant culture, people who have found new purpose and energy in the face of conflict. The response to the violence is often singing, dancing, laughter and marvelous music that comes from the root of their culture. Through this journey we understand the Sudanese conflict that stems from a war on identity.
hajooj kuka is a filmmaker from Sudan, currently based between Nairobi, Kenya, and Nuba Mountains, Sudan. He is the creative director of 3ayin.com: a website that works with local reporters aimed at bringing the news of the war through short documentaries to the Sudanese people. hajooj is a regular contributor to nubareports.org. His previous work includes the 2009 documentary, Darfur’s Skeleton, which explores the conflict in Sudan’s troubled region since 2003. He has also worked as a director and editor at Alhurra TV station in Washington DC and at the production company Shilo Inc. in New York.
Awards
People’s Choice Documentary Award, Toronto International FF, Canada, 2014
Best Feature Documentary Award, Cordoba African Film Festival, Spain, 2015
Audience Award for Feature Documentary, Angers African Film Festival, France, 2015
Main Jury Prize for Feature Documentary, Angers African Film Festival, France, 2015
Grand Nile Prize for Best Documentary, Luxor African Film Festival, Egypt, 2015
Arterial Network’s Artwatch Africa Award for Freedom of Expression, Durban International Film Festival, South Africa, 2015
Best Documentary Award, Durban International Film Festival, South Africa, 2015
Panelists
Dag Yngvesson is a filmmaker, lecturer, and PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of Minnesota. Drawing on diverse theoretical perspectives and many years of film work in the US and Indonesia, his dissertation explores the relationship between histories of cinema, political expression, nationalism and globalization in Indonesia. He has published scholarly articles and reviews in Jumpcut, Indonesia and the Malay World, Plaridel Journal of Communication, Media, and Society, and elsewhere. His current film projects include collaborative film/ethnographies on the politics of peace in Aceh, and on migration and labour in the large Indonesian community in Philadelphia. He is finishing post-production on the satirical feature Banyak Ayam, Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck), co-directed/produced with Indonesian filmmaker Koes Yuliadi.
Sonali Pahwa is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts & Dance at the University of Minnesota. An anthropologist of theatre and performance in the Arab world, she has researched youth theatre and self-help performance in pre-revolution Egypt, and street performance at Egyptian protests and festivals. A new project on women’s digital lives in Egypt brings the lens of performance to blogs, vlogs, YouTube channels, and video games. Theoretical interests include affect theory, gender performance, materiality and virtuality.
Ahmed Daoud is an electrical and computer engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and CTO of Reemo, a local technology startup focused on helping people with mobility issues live more independently with dignity. Daoud has focused a lot of his work on integrating compassion into the way technology companies operate and gives talks on the topic. He is a Sudanese immigrant to America and a Naturalized American citizen. He grew up living in different parts of the world including 10 years in his homeland of Sudan. He is no stranger to conflict and war as he lived in Sudan during part of the time when Sudan was engaged in a civil war and he escaped the 1st Gulf War when his family was living in Kuwait. Daoud has been interviewed on NPR and WNYC regarding his views on how the US should handle the conflict in Syria and continues to be a passionate advocate for appropriate intervention as it serves the interest of the people affected by conflict.
