07: Diaspora Suite by Ephraim Asili
Ephraim Asili featuring Joe McPhee
In seven years, filmmaker, radio host, and all-round music aficionado Ephraim Asili has completed a remarkable cycle of five films regarding his own relationship with the greater African diaspora. These films – Forged Ways (2011), American Hunger (2013), Many Thousands Gone (2015), Kindah (2016), and Fluid Frontiers (2017) – document not only his travels across Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jamaica, and the United States, but also a personal meditation on the constructs surrounding African-American cultural identity, while exploring the interactions of cultures and histories across time and space. With its observational 16mm cinematography and its evocative use of sound and music, Asili’s work is both critical and speculative, listening intently to the resonances of words and gestures that span centuries and oceans. On the occasion of the Courtisane festival, Ephraim Asili will present his “Diaspora Suite” in full, featuring a live performance by Joe McPhee.
In the presence of Ephraim Asili and Joe McPhee.