Documentary Film Family Affair with Director Chico Colvard
Film Screening Followed by Director's Talk
Monday, November 8, 2010 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM EST
Johnson Center, Cinema
The documentary recounts Colvard's family's experience:
- He shot his sister when he was 10 years old.
- The crisis triggering revelations of their father's abuses of his three sisters.
The film explores how the sisters remained inexplicably loyal to their father, their traumas and ongoing effects. Their collaboration on this complex, personal, and powerful film leads to insights about the legacy of abuse, the nature of forgiveness, and the structures of family and community.
According to the film's press release, it "does not attempt to mitigate the long-term dysfunctional impact of incest. Instead, this documentary reshapes the commonly held view that molesters are pushed to the margins of society, never to reconnect with their victim/survivors. In the end, the film focuses on the motives, accommodations and levels of forgiveness survivors make in order to maintain some semblance of family."
Family Affair has been selected by numerous film festivals in 2009 and 2010 (Sundance, HotDocs, Berlin, Tribeca, Stranger Than Fiction, as well as an Oscar-qualifying run in DocuWeeks), and has won Audience and Best Documentary Feature awards. It was the first documentary selected for distribution by the Oprah Winfrey Network and has won grants, including the LEF Moving Image Fund and Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media.
We anticipate that the film will generate fruitful discussion of family relations, race and gender expectations, and forms of abuse (sexual, psychological and physical), as well as representation and expression. As Chico is also a primary subject in the documentary, his presentation addresses facets of his personal story -- of discovery, trauma, and reconciliation -- as well as the filmmaking process.
Follow the film/director on Facebook.
Hosted by the Film and Media Studies Program.
Sponsored by African and African American Studies, Cultural Studies, Women and Gender Studies, English, and Film and Video Studies.
