The third annual African Diaspora Film Festival runs Friday through Thursday, June 17 through 23, at Facets Cinematheque. Tickets are $9, $5 for Facets members; for more information call 773-281-4114 or consult www.facets.org.
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The festival opens with How to Conquer America in One Night (2004, 96 min.), a Canadian comedy by Haitian emigre Dany Laferriere. An irrepressible young man leaves Port-au-Prince for snowy Montreal, convinced that the key to upward mobility is finding himself a blond pinup. His cabdriver host, a poet who fled Haiti 20 years earlier, is sadder and wiser, with plenty of blond troubles of his own. The director cites Spike Lee and Woody Allen as inspirations for this lighthearted romp. In French with subtitles. (Fri 6/17, 7 PM; Mon 6/20, 9:15 PM)
Of special note is a rare screening of Rio: Zona Norte (1957, 90 min.), a neorealist classic by Brazilian master Nelson Pereira dos Santos. As a black samba composer travels across Rio de Janeiro, he experiences the many levels of Brazilian society, each caught up in the rhythms of indigenous music. In Portuguese with subtitles. (Sat 6/18, 3 PM; Sun 6/19, 9 PM)
Silence: In Search of Black Female Sexuality in America Sat 6/18, 5 PM; Sun 6/19, 7 PM
