Cohen Media Group is proud to announce the release of the enchanting documentary/road movie FACES PLACES (VISAGES VILLAGES,) co-directed by 89-year old Agnes Varda, one of the leading figures of the French New Wave, and acclaimed 33 year-old French photographer and muralist JR. A sensation at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and a selection of the Telluride, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, it is scheduled to open in New York on Friday, October 6 at Lincoln Plaza and the Quad Cinemas, followed by a national roll out.

Kindred spirits, Varda and JR share a lifelong passion for images and how they are created, displayed and shared.  Together they travel around the villages of France in JR’s photo truck meeting locals, learning their stories and producing epic-size portraits of them.  Their photos are prominently displayed on houses, barns, storefronts and trains revealing the humanity in their subjects, and themselves. FACES PLACES documents these heart-warming encounters as well as t

The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) celebrates its 25^th anniversary with a total of 64 films from 31 countries including 31 World, US and NY Premieres. Screenings will be held in three venues in Manhattan: Teachers College, Columbia University, Cinema Village and MIST Harlem. 

The films in ADIFF 2017 – some coming directly from important national and international film festivals such as Sundance, Toronto or Berlinale - illustrate the diversification of the global film industry, from portraits of trailblazers  of yesterday and today (Winnie, Sammy Davis Jr., Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba) to intimate stories that will touch the audience in many ways (The Citizen, Foreign Body, Rosa Chumbe).

ADIFF 2017 FACT SHEET

WHAT:  25^th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival 
WHEN: November 24 to December 10, 2017
WHERE: 

* MILBANK CHAPEL, TEACHERS COLLEGE, CU - 525 W 120th St.- 125 Zankel & 177GD/179GD

* COWIN CENTER, TEACHERS COLLEGE, CU - Entrance between 120th and 121t

From one of Egypt’s most controversial and taboo-breaking filmmakers comes a drama of betrayal, passion and political upheaval.  Set against the Egyptian revolution as a backdrop, the story is built around four people who live on a desert farm. It examines issues of love, revenge, passion and the misuse of power that illustrates the larger conflicts in the country…

The film caused a firestorm of media debate over freedom of expression in its home country. Ironically, even under the newer government, the film was censored and subjected to numerous edits before Egyptians could view it. It’s a scathing critique of the establishment, building to an unflinching ending that questions where the revolution is headed and what it has accomplished.

From one of Egypt’s most controversial and taboo-breaking filmmakers comes a drama of betrayal, passion and political upheaval.  Set against the Egyptian revolution as a backdrop, the story is built around four people who live on a desert farm. It examines issues of love, revenge, passion and the misuse of power that illustrates the larger conflicts in the country…

The film caused a firestorm of media debate over freedom of expression in its home country. Ironically, even under the newer government, the film was censored and subjected to numerous edits before Egyptians could view it. It’s a scathing critique of the establishment, building to an unflinching ending that questions where the revolution is headed and what it has accomplished.

GURUMBE

Q&A with Director M. Angel Rosales on Friday, Dec. 1st and Saturday, Dec. 2nd

Flamenco is synonymous with Spanish culture. Since its inception, theorists have sidelined the fundamental contribution of Afro-Andalusians. Commercial exploitation of the American colonies brought hundreds of Africans to Spain to be sold as slaves, forming a population who over time managed to gain space in a society wrought with racial prejudices. Music and dance were a fundamental part of their expression and the most important affirmation of their identity. As the black population began to disappear from Spain in the late 19th century, so too did their contribution to this extraordinary art form. In Gurumbé, their story is finally told.

ROSA CHUMBE

Rosa Chumbe is set in the middle of October, in the city of Lima, Peru. This is “the purple month”: the time to commemorate the Lord of Miracles, the most widely venerated image of Christ in the city, with many processions going on around downtown.  Rosa Chumbe, an indigenous, mature police officer with both a gambling and a drinking problem lives with her daughter Sheila, who has a little baby. One day, after a big fight between them, Sheila steals her mother’s savings and storms out of the house leaving her baby behind. Rosa is forced to spend some time with her grandson. Something changes inside her heart of stone. However, everything takes a wrong turn one night. Only a miracle can save her.

Illustrated Lecture by JEAN-PIERRE LAFFONT

Renowned documentary photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont moved to New York City from Paris in 1965. In his extensive travels, he has documented the entirety of America and its social forces, as well as those around the world. Laffont also focused his camera on his new “hometown” New York City. His newest published collection, New York City Up and Down (Glitterati Incorporated, 2017), is an elegant, incisive, and unexpected review of forty years of exploration by one of the most revered documentarians working today. 


Just as he explored the explosive, the calm, the social, the environment in his prize-winning book, Photographer’s Paradise, Laffont has filled New York City Up and Down with the highs and lows of New York City life.  Not a commentary on the high end versus the low end of lifestyles, it is instead a commentary on the ups and downs socially, politically, and visually that have taken place in the city he loves so much, with the eyes of a

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