BY SELINA McCALLUM
The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) will be celebrating 27 years on November 29th in New York City. Fifty-nine films and documentaries from 39 different countries will be presented at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Cinema Village and MIST Harlem.
The New York-based husband-and-wife co-directors of ADIFF, Reinaldo Barroso-Spech and Diarah N’Daw-Spech, founded the festival in 1993. However, both of their backgrounds are not in film. N’daw-Specs has a background in business and finance, while her co-director and husband has a doctorate in education.
“We wanted to bring to the community films that explored the human experience of people of African descent so that people can have a better understanding of what it means to be black anywhere and everywhere in the world,” said N’Daw-Spech.
The festival runs until December 15th and brings people out from all around the globe, including Caribbean, African American, African, Latino and European ethnic backgrounds who share a love for the human experience of people of colour.
ADIFF is now a national and international event, held in New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, and Paris, France, but it wasn’t always recognized. For the first 16 years of running the festival N’Daw-Spech and her husband also worked a full-time job.
“We had to use our own money for many years because we had full time jobs but did this on the side. We had to get credibility in the industry, connect with other folks, and get the respect we deserved for the work we do which sometimes is hard,” said the Co-Director of ADIFF.
Since 1993, ADIFF’s editorial line aims at remaining culturally relevant with a selection of meaningful, thought provoking titles presenting the Human Experience of People of Color.
“What we look for is what we call culturally meaningful. These are films that have a high production value, are really well made, that have a strong storyline that is driven more by the character than the action,” said N’Daw-Spech. “We want the audience to come out of the screening with a better understanding of what it means to be a person of colour.”
Additionally, the couple seeks films that have a social dimension that show how a character’s actions can be driven by their environment.
The opening night film is Ali’s Comeback: The Untold Story by Art Jones. It is a fascinating documentary that recounts the unsung saga that broke the boxing’s blacklist status of Muhammad Ali, the champion who said, “No” to war and racism.
Other documentaries that will be shown are Fear No Gumbo (Stop Stealing Our Sh*t) by aspiring rapper Kimberly Rivers-Roberts and Paul Laurence Dunbar: Beyond the Mask by Fredrick Lewis.
The most exciting part of film festivals is getting the opportunity to watch films that may be banned in their own country of origin. One film that will be shown at ADIFF is called Marighella, an action drama film from Brazil set in 1969 based on the life of Afro-Brazilian politician and guerilla fighter Carlos Marighella.
“I think the most important thing is that the films we show enable folks to realize that any person, any human being is a complex individual,” said N’Daw-Spech. “Most of the time the stories that depict our experiences tend to portray us as just one dimensional, so that is very detrimental to people’s understanding of who we are as people.”
Tickets for the festival range from $11 to $50 depending on the screening or event.
Programs in the festival include Spotlight on Brazil; LGBTQ Program; Spotlight on Nigeria; Katrina: 14 years later program; Spotlight on Egypt; Public Award for the Best Film Directed by a Woman of Colour; and the ADIFF School Program.
Commenting on the line up of ADIFF Chicago 2019, film critic Kathleen Sachs of the Chicago Readers wrote: “The films in the 17th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival, Chicago do what much media and even the public-school system fail to do: educate.”
When asking N’Daw-Spech if they have any plans in mind yet to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ADIFF, she laughed and said she hopes they have the strength to make it to 30 years first. Not many can do what this couple has done for the last 27 years together. Passion and dedication drive Barroso-Spech and N’Daw-Spech.
“It’s important, it is valuable and you’re providing a public service, but after 30 years, maybe it won’t be there anymore, but who knows, we’ll see,” said N’Daw-Spech.
For more information on the African Diaspora International Film Festival, visit https://nyadiff.org/ny-2019/
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