Honorary Funny Porto Ricans
I attended the screening of Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? as part of the Pan African Film Festival on Saturday night.
Arthur and I (and many of our Emerson friends) worked on various portions of this documentary over the past three years with our former professor, Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins. We watched it many times throughout production, but experiencing the documentary with the Cape Verdean American community in Los Angeles was so powerful.
The audience’s reception moved me. The documentary’s larger story of gentrification has touched far too many communities. I left the night longing for a cultural identity. I don’t feel like I have one genetically or nationally. I don’t think I really need one, as I like just being me, but I’m happy to have helped preserve one.
My favorite question from the Q&A session: Why didn’t you interview Cape Verdean scholars? How did you choose which stories were accurate for inclusion?
Answer: Uh, hello?! Dr. Andrade-Watkins, PhD in cultural studies. I can validate the accuracy and I believe that people are capable of telling their own stories.
Huzzah!
Posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 0:30.