Sharon Conner (HBO) sits down with Pete to discuss all things music. I believe his is the only composer interview.
You can see the full interview here…SiffTV – Seattle International Film Festival – Producer/Composer Pete Droge of A LOT LIKE YOU.
photo & concept by pete droge
Our upcoming SIFF screening:
Sunday, June 12th at 1pm @ Admiral Theater (W Seattle)
SIFF tickets for A Lot Like You are on sale now.
June 12th is also known as “Loving Day,” named after the landmark 1967 Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriages in the US. This Sunday will mark the 44th anniversary of this ruling.
According to Census 2000:
There are approximately 3.1 million interracial couples, which is about six percent of all married couples.
About 6.8 million Americans identified themselves as being two or more races, which is 2.4 percent of the total U.S. population.
40 percent of the 6.8 million Americans who checked more than one box for race live in the West. That compares with 27 percent in the South, 18 percent in the Northeast and 15 percent in the Midwest.
The story of race in the U.S. is rapidly changing. According to U.S. Census estimates, multiracial Americans have become one of the country’s fastest growing demographic groups. Nicholas Jones, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Racial Statistics Branch, says the number of mixed-race individuals has increased about 25 percent since the 2000 census. “These are mainly driven by births of children from interracial parent couples,” he says.
This is especially true in the Seattle area, which has a higher concentration of mixed-race people than any other metro area in the country. As such, we are uniquely positioned to frame the conversation about race and cultural identity around the experiences of mixed-heritage individuals.
Additional resources on mixed-heritage experience:
~ Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America
~ Mixed Race Studies: scholarly perspectives on the Mixed Race Experience by Steven F. Riley
~Lornet Turnbull (Seattle Times) This is Who I Am: Defining Mixed Race Identity
At every screening, concerned viewers ask me whether the living conditions for women in Tanzania have changed. Are girls still subjected to FGM…are they still being forced into marriage the same way?
The answer to this question is incredibly complex.
The truth is, we are all struggling to find ways to end violence in our communities. And no one, not even Tanzania, has figured out how to do this.
In the case of female genital mutilation (FGM), one can look at the fact that since the early 80s it has been illegal to practice FGM in Tanzania. But there is also the concurrent reality that having a harm legally recognized as a crime is not sufficient to end the practice (especially in rural areas where these laws are difficult to enforce.)
The same is true here in the US. Let’s not forget that there were no laws against raping or beating your wife until the early 70s. And we all recognize that having laws against sexual and domestic violence is not enough to prevent abuse in our communities. So we have some figuring out to do, and are definitely in a position where we can be learning from each other…
So then what does it mean for a village, a community to find its own ways to address abuse? What would the tipping point need to be for abuse to be recognized as a legitimate harm against humanity? Can we develop responses to violence that aren’t dependent on law enforcement? What would it look like for a community to support both the survivor’s safety and autonomy and the abuser’s accountability? And are there any community-based models we can learn from that can shed some light on what might work in our own communities, either here in the US or overseas?
Enter The Revolution Starts At Home…a phenomenal collection of essays and stories by dear friends and fellow activists who have been deeply considering community-based alternatives to responding to abuse. Jake Fawcett (ALLY Exec Producer) wrote a great review of this anthology on Can You Relate?, a blog about violence and relationships.
So this one simple question taps into a much larger issue — what would it take to truly end violence in our communities? This collection of stories, taken as a whole, reveals a very complex, insightful tapestry of what it means to build loving, equitable, accountable communities.
Earlier this month, I read in the NY Times that for the first time, four films by women directors were in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes.
So I was especially delighted when, later that same day, I learned that Seattle Woman Magazine was interested in profiling local women directors with films in SIFF for their upcoming June issue (FREE on newsstands now, Seattle!) A Lot Like You was one of two films they featured (the other being Megan Griffiths’ The Off Hours, which I’m excited to check out in early June!)
Thank you to Seattle Woman Magazine for highlighting our film, and for recognizing local women filmmakers every year. You can read Cheryl Murfin’s full article here…
SiffTV – Seattle International Film Festival – Director Eli Kimaro.
I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with the fabulous Sharon Conner (SIFFtv/HBO), and enjoyed having the opportunity to reflect on our process of finding the story.
We did a pretty good job of covering our 8-year journey in 8 minutes!! See for yourself…
Reviewed by Christy Karras
(from the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival)
Directed by: Eliaichi Kimaro
Written by: Eliaichi Kimaro and Eric Frith
Featuring: Eliaichi Kimaro, Sadikiel Kimaro, Young Kimaro, Awonyisa Ngowe and Ndereriosa Shao
Creating a documentary often involves long journeys down twisting paths that may change as they go. In “A Lot Like You,” Eliaichi Kimaro starts off meaning to tell the story of her father, who left Tanzania in the 1960s to study in the United States and spent most of the next 30 years abroad. But her film takes a sudden and unforeseen turn toward something tougher yet much more rewarding.
Kimaro’s original premise is interesting enough, if not hugely dramatic: As a boy, her father earns top grades and aces a national exam that qualifies him for a chance to study abroad. While in the U.S. earning a Ph.D. in economics, he falls in love, to both their families’ surprise, with a fellow student who is Korean. The couple sets up life in the suburbs, he working for the IMF and she for the World Bank.
So far, so good. The film tells of her parents’ culture shock (magnified by the turbulent era in which it takes place), their many successes and their world travels, including visits to Tanzania every two years.
Kimaro, their daughter, is the beneficiary of their migration. When the film opens, she works for a nonprofit and has just married her white American husband. But she never feels completely at home in the U.S. — and neither do her parents, who decide to retire in Tanzania. Kimaro takes a year off to film her father’s reintegration into African life, traveling to his homeland to interview him and the siblings he left behind.
When they’re interviewed together, the siblings’ stories are a bit short on details. What is there to say, really, about your brother’s rise to prominence on the global stage while you stayed home in a place where annual incomes are measured in hundreds, not thousands, of dollars?
But when Kimaro talks privately to her father’s sisters, the story changes: Even though one of them earned the same grades and passed the same tests as their brother, their parents kept both sisters at home. Forced into physically and sexually abusive marriages, they were not allowed to escape. Their trials matched their brother’s triumphs. Continue reading →
A very personal journey, May 25, 2011
By justzheng
To celebrate the official release date of A Lot Like You‘s original movie soundtrack A N D our SIFF World Premiere tonight (Harvard Exit, 7pm), we cut a 2min music video of the title track. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage of PETE DROGE in the studio.
Freshly cut by Eric Frith. Photos by Eliaichi Kimaro.
Enjoy!!!
We had a great time meeting with Margaret Larson (New Day NW). Pete performs the title song “A Lot Like You,” and Eliaichi joins the show to discuss her documentary.
Click here to watch the full 9-min segment.
Local filmmaker documents emotional search for self
A new documentary from Seattle-based filmmaker, Eliaichi Kimaro, called A Lot Like You takes viewers through her personal journey of self-discovery and trying to break a life-long cycle of violence. Acclaimed Northwest musician, Pete Droge, composed original music for the film and was so moved by Eliaichi’s story that he’s also released a soundtrack inspired by the movie…
The timing couldn’t have been better, with the official soundtrack release date and our world premiere being tomorrow, May 24th…