Thursday, September 23rd
6:30 PM
Black Rock Branch
Join filmmaker John Ankele for a presentation of his award winning film: Grandmother to Grandmother New York to Tanzania.
Winner: Cine Golden Eagle Award
In sub Saharan Africa, AIDS is wiping out a generation of parents, leaving 13 million orphans behind. A similar thing is happening in cities all across America. AIDS, drugs, and violence are wiping out a generations of parents, leaving millions of children behind. Grandmothers, often impoverished themselves, are rescuing the children and struggling to raise them.
The same crushing burden carried by these African women is also being shouldered by tens of thousands of grandmothers living in urban ghettos in the United States. On top of the diminishments of aging, poor nutrition, and unhealthy lifestyles, these women are suffering shame and grief over the loss of their own children to AIDS, drugs, violence, and prison. With their hopes for a peaceful old age shattered, and facing the prospect of parenting grandchildren who are depressed and angry at having been left without a mom and dad, they live with the constant worry of how to keep their grandchildren from dropping out of school, getting pregnant, and falling prey to the unrelenting dangers of the street.
Our film not only describes the problem, but proposes a practical solution. We tell the stories of grandmothers and grandchildren from two model projects, one in Tanzania and one in the Bronx, and show how inspired partnerships can transform situations fraught with confusion and fear into opportunities for renewal and hope. The study guides and supplementary material offered with this film will encourage and empower viewers to replicate these two model projects in other urban communities in the USA and in impoverished communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
