M.K. Asante Jr. didn’t hear his name called when they
announced the Best Documentary at the Pan African Film & Arts
Festival. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t win.
“We actually didn’t know we won until one of the
question-and-answer sessions after a screening of the film when
someone in the audience told us,” said Asante Jr., the
executive producer and screenwriter of the documentary “500
Years Later.”
“Someone mentioned it and we asked what happened, and then
everyone started laughing,” he said.
Of course, all that laughing was soon followed by applause, and
for good reason. The festival screens 150 to 200 films from around
the world.
“It was such an honor to be involved with the
festival,” Asante Jr. said. “Every time they showed the
film there was a sold-out crowd, and on the last day people were
standing to watch it. We were overwhelmed.”
Through interviews with a wide range of people, the documentary
explores the psychological and cultural effects that slavery has
had on the African community. The interviews are from more than 25
different countries and range from Nobel Prize winners to
rappers.
“Basically we went everywhere where there are people from
African descent.”
“We talked to giant figures in the African American
community like Maulana Karenga, who is the founder of
Kwanzaa,” he said. “We went to universities as well as
into the neighborhoods to talk to the common folk.”
To get this far, however, Asante Jr. had to take a variety of
different paths. As a first year graduate screenwriting student in
the School of Theater, Film and Television, he got involved with
the documentary while on tour for one of his books of poetry.
He’s also the current editor of Nommo, a news magazine owned
by ASUCLA Publications, an umbrella group that also includes the
Daily Bruin.
“When I was doing a reading, there was this company there
that wanted me to do some of my work on film, and then that led to
discussing this documentary,” he said. “The director
already had his idea, and he knew my writing and wanted me to write
the screenplay. So from there, we immediately began writing and
filming.”
The film’s success at the Pan African Film & Arts
Festival has led to distribution opportunities and interest from
educational institutes for use as a teaching method. The film will
be an official selection at five different festivals, and its Web
site has allowed people to even further connect with it.
“Every day people register on the site, and it has created
this community to talk about the issues. We wanted this film to
initiate a dialogue, and we feel it really has,” Asante Jr.
said.
“We worked on this project for two and a half years, and
you just don’t know if people are going to like it;
you’re just going on passion and what you think is
right,” he said. “To have people be so receptive and
come up to us crying and embrace us after seeing the film is just
amazing.”
Though aimed at the black community, Asante Jr. feels the film
can appeal to a global audience because of its focus on racism.
“The film is really for the world because we all feel
after watching it, and even before, that racism is a disease and it
poisons the way groups of people can relate and function with each
other. It’s about realizing that this is something that has
to be fought,” Asante Jr. said.
As for future plans, there is a second installation of
“500 Years Later” in the making, scheduled for release
in the fall of 2006. The second part of the documentary will focus
more on the effects of colonialism on the African continent,
addressing such issues as AIDS and the World Bank.
“Interviews for part two include Nobel Peace Prize winner
Desmond Tutu as well as top African Union officials and leading
African intellectuals,” Asante Jr. said.
For Asante Jr. personally, future plans are just to go wherever
the cause takes him, using a variety of mediums to express his
ideas.
“I just want to continue being able to work in whichever
medium fits the project or the vision or idea I have,” he
said. “It’s about having the freedom and ability to
keep being loyal to the people I’m making it for.”