Liberian Movie -Makes history ‘THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED’
By Peterking Quaye – Liberia has been tagged as one of Africa’s most historic nation as a Liberian movie has entered this year’s Zimbabwe Intetnational Film Festival which took place from the 30th of September to the 7th of October 2011.
The Redemption of General butt naked film poster
The Zimbabwe International Film Festival under its new management is poised to become the leading and most vibrant African cinema event in Zimbabwe and the continent. With African short films, feature films and documentary films are about to rupture out of the confines and into the mainstream, the occasion has come to use quality African Films to promote the variety of African voices and culture in certified and first-rate surroundings.
Directed and Produced by Eric Strauss & Daniele Anastasion, documetary general movie, is set to be shown as one of the top movies and will be shown on the main screen of ZIFF 2011. The theme “Finding Common Ground” is meant to connect us as Africans across the continent, in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Europe, the Americas and Asia. Africans in and out of the continent are constantly looking for that common ground that binds us together as a people and has been indefinable for centuries now.
The festival, according to the organizers is meant for Africa to realise its own development vision, images for this vision need to be shown. We cannot create the future if we cannot visualize it.
The place of visual media is to create success. Film and television are instruments for a new visual folklore.
Filmmaking in Africa and the Diaspora portrays imagines of Africa to the rest of the world but also conveys images of Africa to Africans.
African cinema plays that role of bringing us all together as a people through the portrayal of our similar histories, heritage, varying degrees of our skin colour, the African spirit and experience. To help us realise that actual we are very much the same people, that there is more that binds us together than we realise, that we have a lot of ground common to share and start a dialogue between French and English speaking Africans. Spanish, Portuguese and English speaking Africans see African Cinema as the tool to assist us find that common ground as it has the ability to bring the world to our audience.
The Redemption of General Butt Naked follows Joshua Milton Blahyi – aka General Butt Naked – a brutal African warlord who has renounced his violent past and reinvented himself as a Christian evangelist.
Today, Blahyi travels the nation of Liberia as a preacher, seeking out those he once victimized in search of an uncertain forgiveness. Filmmakers Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasion track his often troubling path up-close, finding both the genuine and disconcerting in Blahyi’s efforts, raising questions about the limits of faith and forgiveness in the absence of justice.
In addition to the screening of films to the people of Harare, a comprehensive Workshop and Discussion programme accompanies the Festival, offering tangible outreach and benefits to a range of communities, such as sponsors, donors, film makers, industry players and international film practitioners. The Zimbabwe International Film Festival also embarks on a major community outreach project that will see in excess of 10,000 students and /or community groups being given the opportunity to attend screenings at tents in the park, local community and school halls.
