500 Years Later (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Owen Alik Shahadah

Writers:

M.K. Asante Jr. (writer)
Owen Alik Shahadah (writer)

Release Date:

24 February 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

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

Plot:

Crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty, corruption, poor health...

Plot Keywords:

African | Slavery | Independent Film Making | Black Independent Film | Slave Trade

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Hakim Adi	...	Himself
Molefi Kete Asante	...	Himself
Amiri Baraka	...	Himself (voice)
Anthony Carter	...	Himself
David Commissiong	...	Himself
Bill Cosby	...	Himself (voice)
Nelson George	...	Himself
Rabbi Kohain Nathanya Halevi	...	Himself
Samuel Hay	...	Himself
Asher Hoyles	...	Herself
David Hutchinson	...	Himself
Maulana Karenga	...	Himself
Trevor Marshall	...	Himself
Steve Martin	...	Himself
Andrew Mitchell	...	Himself
Andrew Muhammad	...	Himself
Khaleel Muhammad	...	Himself
Dr. Kimani Nehusi	...	Himself
Isaac Osei	...	Himself
Sandra Richards	...	Herself
Paul Robeson Jr.	...	Himself
Shaykh Muhammad Shareef	...	Himself
Esther Stanford	...	Herself
Dr. Francis Cress Welsing	...	Herself
Helena Woodard	...	Herself
Malcolm X	...	Himself (archive sound)
Tukufu Zuberi	...	Himself

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (RCA Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Accra, Ghana

Company:

Halaqah Media

Trivia:

The film features the poem "Somebody Blew-up America" by Amiri Baraka

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

Movie Connections:

References Sankofa (1993)

Soundtrack:

Water running off my back

Politics of Film - it really is more than just entertainment

Politics of Film

This is like Sankofa a Diaspora telling of The Great Black Experience, independent conscious but unlike Sankofa which came out of US in the new world, this came out of London.

Interesting is that while Sankofa was a true independent success being seen in many independent cinema's and brought to colleges from grassroots black support, this film is hard, I mean real hard to see in Britain. Most folks I speak to you Brixton, London haven't heard of it let alone seen it and the independent cinema the Ritzy has blanked it.

Showing 500 Years Later back to back to with Sankofa would be an interesting starting point for the Politics of Film. Both progressive and conscious narratives from the Hunted not the Hunters view and both with distribution problems from the get go.

Note: There is an interesting interview with the makers from the Socialist Worker paper, this is a pretty far left marginal group, who like most radical socialist/Marxist organizations tend to seek out and support all things black and working class. Check it: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=7188

- email me please if you know of any similar films but not in English, especially if Arabic (maybe Egyptian).