The ninth season of the award-winning documentary series “AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange” kicked off on WORLD Channel at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Monday, January 16—Martin Luther King Jr. Day—with the documentary “An American Ascent.” The gripping film captures the first African American team of climbers to attempt to summit Denali (formerly Mount McKinley), North America’s highest peak, and to inspire other Blacks to connect with the outdoors. The documentary was eventually made available online, which was shared on this blog last week; watch it in full here if you missed it.
Another film from the ongoing season of “AfroPop” that has also been made available online is Tyler Johnston and Miquel Galofré’s “My Father’s Land.” The hour-long film follows an undocumented immigrant in the Bahamas and the lengths to which he goes to return to his native Haiti to see his ailing 103-year-old father. The film also explores issues of immigration and human rights.
Exploring the life of Papa Jah, a Haitian gardener who has spent the last forty years in the Bahamas, building a life for himself and his children in a marginalized community, Papa Jah travels back to his family’s small village on Ile de la Tortue, to reunite with his ill father, hopefully, before its too late.
Capturing local colors, textures and energy, with music of strong importance (a mixture of pop and traditional Haitian songs), the film mixes English, Haitian creole and Spanish and was shot in across the Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with post-production in Trinidad and Tobago, where it eventually had its world premiere at the Trinidad and Tobago international film festival in September 2015, winning the Amnesty International human rights award.
It made its AfroPop premiere a week ago, on January 30, and is now available online; check it out below.
Hosted by acclaimed actress Nikki Beharie, “AfroPoP” is comprised of documentaries about contemporary life, art and culture across the African Diaspora. The program is produced by National Black Programming Consortium and co-presented by series distributor American Public Television (APT).
New episodes of “AfroPoP” air weekly through February 15.
Watch the affecting “My Father’s Land” in full below:
