500 Years Later (2005)

Crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty, corruption, poor health, and underdevelopment plagues people of African descent globally - Why? 500 ... See full summary »

Director:

Owen Alik Shahadah

Writer:

M.K. Asante

Stars:

Kolfi Adu, Sona Jobarteh, Hunter Adams III

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kolfi Adu	...	Himself - African Storyteller
Sona Jobarteh	...	Herself - Kora Player (as Maya Jobarteh)
Hunter Adams III	...	Himself - Neuroscientist
Hakim Adi	...	Himself - Historian (as Dr. Hakim Adi)
Toyin Agbetu	...	Himself - Ligali Media
Mukasa Afrika	...	Himself - Teacher at Lotus Academy
Ras Kumasi	...	Himself - Afruika Bantu School Teacher
Adisa Alkebulan	...	Himself - Lecturer (as Dr. Adisa Alkebulan)
Molefi Kete Asante	...	Himself - Professor Temple University (as Dr. Molefi Asante)
Afrar Afriyea	...	Himself - Afruika Bantu Saturday School
M.K. Asante	...	Himself - Writer (as M.K. Asante Jr.)
Sister Aya	...	Herself - Afruika Bantu Saturday School
Amiri Baraka	...	Himself - Poet and Activist (archive sound)
David Commissiong	...	Himself - Pan-African Affairs Barbados
Kevin Farmer	...	Himself - Barbadian Historian

Storyline

Crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty, corruption, poor health, and underdevelopment plagues people of African descent globally - Why? 500 years later from the onset of Slavery and subsequent Colonialism, Africans are still struggling for basic freedom-Why? Filmed in five continents, and over twenty countries, 500 Years Later engages the authentic retrospective voice, told from the African vantage-point of those whom history has sought to silence by examining the collective atrocities that uprooted Africans from their culture and homeland. 500 Years Later is a timeless compelling journey, infused with the spirit and music of liberation that chronicles the struggle of a people who have fought and continue to fight for the most essential human right - freedom.

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Plot Keywords:

african | slavery | independent film making | black independent film | slave trade | 

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Taglines:

Until lions tell their story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 February 2005 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Accra, Ghana

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Halaqah Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the largest screenings in film history occurred when this movie was shown at the Million More Movement in Washington, D.C., on 15 October 2005.

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Quotes

Dr. Kimani Nehusi: To take somebody away by force; away from their community; is one of the most savage acts you could think about doing. And we can't forget that
Dr. Kimani Nehusi: After the legal termination of physical enslavement, which many of us mistake for emancipation, Europeans continue to want to dominate and control Africa. By then, they had already put in place mental enslavement

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Connections

Followed by Motherland (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Timeless Motion"
Performed by Kasse Mady Diabate with the African Classical Music Ensemble
Composed by Tunde Jegede
Courtesy of ACM Productions

User Reviews

500 YEARS LATER is so much more than a film

500 Years Later is more than a film but rather a transcontinental discussion between some the greatest and most articulate thinkers of the African global nation. The film deals with the position of the African Diaspora 500 years after the forced migration of Africans from the continent. The sensitive direction of Director Owen 'Alik Shahadah and perceptively of Writer M.K. Asante Jr., get to the crux of the problems that continue to affect the melanin race of people despite their background or national affiliation.

Interspersed between the learned words of cultural activist Dr. Maulana Karenga (Founder of Kwanzaa), Writer Dr. Francis Cress Welsing (Isis papers), Dr. Molefi K Asante (Father of "Afrocentrity"), Andrew Muhammad (Author "Hidden history), among others, are conversations with laypeople who reflect the conflicts of racial inequalities in their own lives. The film is tied together by an array of images from the coast of West Africa, to the city pulse of London, to the shores of Barbados and the environs of America with haunting melodies by composer Tunde Jegede that pluck at heartstrings and sing the audience into a realization of their past and present self.

"500 Years Later" is not a film to be watched twice, three, or even five times, instead it is a timely audiovisual reference book that illuminates the challenges of continental Africans and that of the Diaspora. The poignant symbology that separates the chapters and the clear messages from the cast reveals new information with every frame making it a film as relevant as a dictionary on global Pan-African thought. "500 Years Later" is a work of courage that should be instituted in schools, churches and community centers urging leaders and children to play a more active role in the growth of a stable foundation for future generations to stand.

The film goes past explaining the problems of people by incorporating within it a glimpse of hope into the future. It is an apt dialogue between laymen, scholars and philosophers about the similarities of experience born from a segregated and demoralized kind of man. '500 Years Later' serves not only as a healthy reminder of the strength of the global African but also a caution against the defeatist nature that has sunk beneath the barrier of skin. A quandary that can only be erased with time, patience and education, ensuring a stronger kind and race of Human that will transcend the definition of color and nationality and ultimately embrace the beauty of differences and learn from the undiluted knowledge of ancestors.