Screening in Ramallah: Rhythm'n'Politics

Rhythm'n'Politics is a program that tackles the outstanding emancipatory powers of rhythm. A wide variety of contemporary music is much inspired by blues, a mixture of African-American work songs and European music, whose origins cannot be separated from the emancipatory movement of Afro-American slaves and its often balladic and sad lyrics from the desperate and hopeless situation of slave labor. The development of the blues is bound with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people and became an inspiration to other emancipatory movements—from the the generation conflict (Rock'n'Roll) and in the hippie and anti-war movement (folk, rock), till self-assertion in the ghettos (rap). The films that compile this chronologically composed program illuminate the subject through documentaries, performances and artistic reflections from 1935 until today.

This program is a cooperation between Qalandiya International (Jerusalem/Ramallah, http://qalandiyainternational.org) and the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, curated by Marcel Schwierin.

Films:

Symphony in Black: a Rhapsody of Negro Life, Fred Waller (Duke Ellington Orchestra), US 1935, 9 min 
God Respects Us When We Work – But He Loves Us When We Dance, Les Blank, US 1968, 20 min
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Stuart Baker, UK 1988, 4 min
Railings (Fitzroy Square), Francis Alÿs, UK 2004, 4 min
Beatbox – Alternate Take, Jani Ruscica, FI 2007, 9 min
80 Million, Mohamed Zayan & Eslam Zein, EG 2009, 4 min