This Friday 10/21, the NW Network will be hosting a screening of A Lot Like You. Central Cinema, 7-9pm, with post-screening Q&A with filmmakers and Network staff.
Last year, as part of the StrangerCrombie auction, ALLY Executive Producers Connie Burk and Jake Fawcett bid on two items (that I know of): 1) a Stranger review of any movie, and 2) a free screening of a movie of your choice.
Guess who’s been the beneficiary of both?
Several times this past month, I’ve been asked , “So what exactly does an Executive Producer do?” While Hollywood might have their own read on this question, as a first-time independent filmmaker with no studio backing, those terms were my own to define.
One piece of this film’s story that has never been given its due is the crucial role that Connie and Jake have played in bringing this film to life. And given their extensive involvement, this story will have to unfold in several parts… Continue reading →
Storytelling is a vital path towards social transformation.
The NW Network of Bi, Trans, Lesbian, & Gay Survivors of Abuse has been turning silence into stories into social change for nearly 25 years.
Join us as we share the story of our Board President, Eli Kimaro. Her full length independent film, “A Lot Like You”, explores her multiracial history through a journey to her father’s Tanzanian homeland. There, she discovers powerful stories of community, and shocking stories of violence against women, that she artfully weaves into her own life story as an abuse survivor, anti-violence advocate, and mother to a young daughter.
As the story unfolds, Eli’s Tanzanian father and Korean mother serve as colorful, humorous cultural liaisons to her past. Discussion with NW Network Staff and members of film team to follow screening.
Tickets may be purchased through Central Cinema Friday, October 21 at 7pm, Central Cinema
$6 advance, $8 at the door.
The Best Documentary Feature film award went to Eliaichi Kimaro for A LOT LIKE YOU (Tanzania/U.S.). The jury had this to say about the film:
“This story, which borders on a legend, will touch everyone’s heart, regardless of gender, colour, personal history and social condition: the most optimistic of the films we’ve seen.”
The jury also gave a special mention to THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED (U.S., Liberia, Georgia) by Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion.
Click Here to read more about the films recognized at the 9th Annual MIBFF Awards.
09/21/2011: I was fortunate enough to deliver the closing keynote at the annual conference of the WA State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to reflect on this film’s journey, and the power of story to shape our worlds…as individuals and as a movement…
Artisphere will be presenting the DC Area Premiere of A Lot Like You
Wednesday, October 5 at 8pm.
Dome Theater
1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington VA
$6
To buy tickets, CLICK HERE
Kinowatt: Film and the power of change
Curated by Maori Karmael Holmes and Sara Zia Ebrahimi
A Lot Like You will be screening October 7, 8-10pm.
Director will be in attendance.
$8 general admission, $5 for students
We’re proud to host this new film series featuring documentary and narrative films that seek to illuminate injustice, spark debate, and incite action!
Entertaining as well as insightful, the films in the series promise to explore the struggles and contributions of marginalized peoples and their communities around a multitude of issues including the environment, economic justice, gender-based oppression, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism.
Did you miss our screenings in January, May and June??
Well here’s your chance to see ALLY on the big screen, thanks to Local Sightings Film Festival at the NW Film Forum. So happy to have this opportunity to screen once again to our hometown crowd!!
(Get Your ALLY Tickets Here: Wed. 10/5 from 7 – 9pm)
Growing up Eliaichi Kimaro was always proud of her mixed-race background although she never understood why. As a first generation American, Eliaichi’s only knowledge of her Tanzanian ancestry has been through stories passed down from her father. To find a narrative of her own, she decides to travel to her father’s village on Mt. Kilimanjaro to finally get to know the family she has only known from afar. Bringing with her an outsider’s curiosity, Eliaichi asks her relatives questions that most people who grew up in the village never thought to ask–including her father. Through these personal interviews, Eliaichi uncovers the dark secrets of her family’s culture and in doing so discovers an unexpected deep personal connection to her Tanzanian roots. In many ways, A Lot Like You becomes a lot like me.
A Lot Like You has been invited to screen at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, whose aim it is to:
…bring audiences the most beautiful and the most amazing new Black films, while creating a space to debate major cultural, social and socio-economic issues. The MIBFF wants to promote a different kind of cinema, cinema that hails from here and from abroad…groundbreaking cinema that moves us, that raises awareness and that takes us all by surprise. The MIBFF wants to deal with issues and present works that raise questions, that provoke, that make us smile, that leave us perplexed, that shock us…
Needless to say, it is an honor to have our film included in this year’s festival.
Thank you, Montreal!
Our film will be screening at MIBFF on 9/29 @ 6pm at Cinema ONF.
We are SO grateful to have been invited to screen A Lot Like You, and deliver the closing keynote at the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence Annual Conference next week:
Eli Kimaro will present at our conference this year – showing her film, A Lot Like You and talking about video as a powerful tool to address social justice issues. Eli is a mixed-race, first-generation American activist turned filmmaker. Her enthusiasm will inspire you as she talks about her lifetime of personal and professional experience working for social change.
Thank You, WSCADV, for inviting me to join in on this conversation!!
I’m SO incredibly grateful to Wendy Elisheva Somerson for the depth she brings to this generous, complex, insightful article about our film!! A huge thank you to Wendy and Tikkun magazine for digging deep and taking this conversation to a whole new level…
…What begins Kimaro’s journey through her family’s cultural history is her desire to pass on a Chagga cultural inheritance to her daughter. But what deepens the story is her realization that she actually wants to shift the next generation’s stance toward family trauma by bringing it to light…In fact, one reason this film works as a model for doing accountability work is that Kimaro situates her personal family story within a social, historical, and political context of African decolonization, transnational relations, race, class, and gender politics. The result is a complex and beautiful film that brings the audience along with Kimaro to bear witness to some difficult truths…
A Lot Like You has been invited to screen at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, whose aim it is to: