Customer Reviews

The Willie Lynch Letter And The Making of A Slave

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First, you should know that the original reels of this film were destroyed in a 1995 house fire, so you'll never see it on the large screen again. Get this video NOW!

As for the story, it's a wonderful piece of storytelling that is occasionally marred by shallow characteristics (e.g., the mulatto son / "traitor"). However, the big win is in the cast's ability to evoke real emotion, tension and even joy from the audience. I've seen this on the big screen - when Gerima's family was driving it from city to city holding impromptu screenings. And I've seen it repeatedly on VHS. It never fails to amaze me and inspire dialogue among the people I'm forcing to view it.

I suggest this film be viewed as part of an unintended trilogy in this order: 1) The Last Supper (the Cuban film by T.G. Alea, not the Christian hollywood piece), 2) Sankofa, 3) Quilombo.

These three complement each other nicely in the context of slavery and rebellion and freedom. A fundamentally "African in the Americas" story that never tires from treatment.

This movie deals with with being true to one's past. Sankofa means something like:"you must remember your past in order to move ahead", in Yoruba.

The hero of the movie is an African American woman who models near an ancient slave castle in West Africa. She does not think of herself as African, until she goes back in time, joins the slaves in the fortress, and is shipped to the sugar plantations in America. Her spiritual freedom comes only after she becomes trully African again.

In todays "globalized" world, national affinities and racial identifications are being questioned, challenged, and reshaped. Haile Gerima, the Ethiopian director of this film (see also - "Adwa") has a definite nationalist message - African Nationalism. His message is delivered very forcefully in this highly original and entertaining movie - HIGHLY recommanded.

This film was well documented and produced by Haile Gerima. He traveled intensively through the Continent of Africa and researched African slave and maroon documents for over 20 years to make this graphical true story of the Middle Passage. I felt very emotional concerning the mistreatment of the slave women and felt proud of the maroons who fought back to regain their freedom. This is an excellent video and should be shown to children and adults of every cultural background. This tape can be ordered from Cultural Communications and Productions in Atlanta by calling 800-874-1023. Their address is 2258 Cascade Road S.W. Atlanta, Ga 30311

Sankofa, directed by Haile Gerima, is at the top of my "best movies" list. It is beatifully produced, the cinematography is inventive and unique (with many macro--extreme close-ups--shots). The movie explores, from an African's perspective (Gerima, a professor at Howard University in Washington, DC, is Ethiopian), African identity throughout the diaspora. It illustrates the perversity of racist ideology and racist practices, particularly slavery. It is a must see. It is available at Eso Won books in Los Angeles. It has tremendous pedagogical value in Black Studies Courses.

In an age where material consumption dominates much of our lives, it is important to keep intact with oneself. This movie confirmed that the main character, a black model, was caught up by the lure of her "beauty". She was scantily clad and wearing a wig. The backdrop was a slave fortress. Neither she nor the photographer took any interest as to what the castle represented until she had an out of body experience that forced her to confront the atrocities of the slave trade.
Transported back to time, she is Shona, a houseslave on a plantation who is abused physically and sexually. She at first, is fearful to fight because it will cost her her life. But sometimes it is better to risk your life than to be cruelly treated in the hands of the oppressors.
The horrors of slavery have distorted us not only physically, but mentally. It brought deep self-resentment and discord among Africans. It brought bodily myths that remain til this day.
I got the chance to meet Haile Gerima and he is a very good historian and lecturer. The ignorance, according to him, lies in us because we are afraid of our own history, so we consume mainstream culture that is borrowed and deconstructed. Gerima's film is an example of how we must find ourselves as Africans in America and around the world.

This movie is my favorite film ever. I saw it as part of a sociology course at Morehouse College a few years back. It is moreso about the miseducation of the so called civilized modern Black. For some reason, we separate ourselves from the slaves of yester-year, when we in fact ARE the slaves from yester year; the scenery is the only thing that has changed. "Shoot, if I was I slave, I'mma telly what I'D do" You'd pick cotton and get beat too. That's what you would do. These were African warriors who were enslaved. This is what this movie shows you: it takes you into the mentalities previously unrevealed by common media that permeated amongst the blacks of that era. It forces the audience to see the modern-day parallels and begs the question:

Just what DID we abolish in 1865??!? It is still here.

Greetings, It was a blessing to see a film that told the story of my ancestor's through the eyes and experience of a slave (by a black director). It is too often the case that films related to the slave experience do not explore the importance of looking back to the past and relating it to our present (the significant role our ancestors play in our experience as Black people). I hope Black scholars take the opportunity to not only watch this film but show it to the youths of the next generation. It is indeed an empowering tool that will impact those across the color lines with its message. The film also answers the question often posed within courses/society dealing with the Black experience "Why must we always talk about race?"
Kudos Mr. Gerima

I watched this movie for my African-American Life and History course at CSU Monterey Bay. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. This movie makes you feel like you are a part of the planation. It is definitely worth the money to purchase it if you are at all interested in African-American history.

In his film, Sankofa, Haile Gerima sets forth a fantastical, yet fact based portrayal of a modern, self absorbed, American woman and her mysterious voyage back in time from a modern day shell of a West African slave fortress island to a French Louisiana sugar plantation. Gerima's factual basis of the lives of those who worked on the plantation cover much information and present a general overview of the lives of sugar slaves in Louisiana and the Caribbean. The film offers many aspects of historical accuracy and should be viewed as a reminder to blacks to "Return to your past" and for whites to return to their ancestry and the ancestry of their race and seek areas of injustice that can be sources of justice-seeking today.

"Sankofa" gives you a visual look at slavery as it existed in the Americas. The movie was shown as part of a class I took and it held the attention of the entire class during its showing. It's impact was interesting. It should be shown in all class that deal with slavery in the Americas. I would recommend it to all who are interested in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade or just American slavery in general.