For this year’s dokfest
Naomi Beckwith, Artistic Director of documenta 16, has handpicked two films
amplifying the interconnectedness of embodied practices, Black identity and
community:
DANCE LIKE A RIVER: ODADAA! DRUMMING AND DANCING IN THE U.S., directed by Barry Dornfeld and Tom Rankin, and Shirley
Clarke’s ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA.
Together these films
demonstrate Beckwith’s belief in the radical power of cultural memory,
improvisation and creative community. Reflecting on her own roots, Beckwith
shares, “I grew up in an era starting in the late ’70s where the arts were so
important to your sense of community and identity. I grew up going to art
fairs, dance classes, loads of theatre. And it was just taken for granted that
you saw music, and you danced and you hung out with visual artists, and people
were just around in this moment of real creative explosion, that was not just
about loving art and loving creativity but about loving oneself as a Black
person in a Black community.”
DANCE LIKE A RIVER follows
Ghanaian master drummer Yacub Addy and his ensemble Odadaa! as they navigate
the complexities of translating traditional drumming and dance to audiences in
the United States, especially in the ways the group considers their work as
much a philosophical project as it is a performance project. In ORNETTE: MADE
IN AMERICA, Shirley Clarke maps the expansive musical cosmos of free jazz
pioneer Ornette Coleman. Blending documentary footage, stylized reenactments
and early music-video-style segments, this genre-bending film captures the
evolution of Coleman’s radical sound and its resonance with the
cross-disciplinary experimentation that shaped American culture in the 1960s
and ’70s.
DANCE LIKE A RIVER
captures an intimate portrait of Odadaa! – a vivacious drumming and dance
ensemble from Ghana, West Africa, during their early years in Washington D.C.
Founded in the early 1980s by master drummer, cultural ambassador and NEA
Heritage Award recipient Yacub Addy, Odadaa! brought together a talented troupe
of musicians and dancers to showcase traditional music and dance of the Ga
people. At the same time, Addy subtly pushes against associations of
“primitivism” with “tradition.” Over the years, Odadaa! flourished in size,
influence and professionalism while remaining true to its roots. Including
excerpts from several native dances such as Bamaya, Adiko and Gome, the
audience comes to understand how Addy’s artistic and philosophical vision shaped
Odadaa! into a powerful tribute to West African heritage with a lasting global
impact.
(Photo by Tom Rankin)
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Premiere:
German Premiere
- Director: Barry Dornfeld, Tom Rankin
ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA is a groundbreaking
portrait of jazz progenitor Ornette Coleman, directed by avant-garde filmmaker
Shirley Clarke. Blurring the lines between documentary, biopic and experimental
film, the work traces Coleman’s life from his childhood in segregated Texas to
his emergence as a revolutionary force in jazz history. The visuals unfold in a
non-linear fashion, featuring archival footage including rare 1968 recordings
of Coleman jamming with his then eleven-year-old son, drummer Denardo Coleman,
originally shot for an unfinished project. Clarke’s film stands not only as a tribute to one of jazz’s most
influential figures but also as a radical experiment in cinematic form that
celebrates creativity, resistance and the power of improvisation.
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