> From: Cameron Bailey <dubwise@interlog.com>
> Subject: Planet Africa Announcement
>
> Dear Friends of Planet Africa,
>
> I am writing to you to announce my resignation as programmer of the
> Planet Africa series at the Toronto International Film Festival. The
> September 1997 festival was my last.
>
> After launching the program in 1995 and seeing its success grow over
> the
> past three years, I am ready to move on. My plan is to spend more time
> writing. (Don't be surprised to see a book or another screenplay
> sometime soon...)
>
> Here's the important news: Planet Africa will continue. The Toronto
> Film
> Festival remains committed to developing the audience for African and
> African diasporic cinema in North America, and to showcasing the best
> films from the African film world. A new head for the Planet Africa
> section will be named in the coming weeks.
>
> Those of you who attended the festival this September will know that
> 1997 was our most successful year. We screened 13 films in the
> program,
> plus a gala world premiere of Kasi Lemmons's Eve's Bayou, one of the
> most successful American independent films of the year, and a special
> presentation of Spike Lee's powerful documentary 4 Little Girls.
>
> Besides Lemmons and Lee, we also hosted Safi Faye, Ramadan Suleman,
> Shirikiana Aina, Nadia Fares, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, Chris Cherot,
> Nelson George, Lina Gopaul and David Lawson from London's Black Audio
> Film Collective, and Barbara Sanon, Don Letts and Rick Elgood, plus
> friends from other festivals, critics, scholars and just plain African
> film fans.
>
> My own highlights included the packed screenings for Safi Faye's
> Mossane
> and Chris Cherot's Hav Plenty, which was picked up for distribution by
> Miramax here in Toronto. Then there was the wild, closing night
> screening of the Jamaican hit Dancehall Queen.
>
> Planet Africa will build on this success, and I hope you will be a
> part
> of that. I'm writing to you because you have all been supporters of
> the
> program, and I want to give you this news first-hand. I also want to
> thank you for your support, your advice, your attendance and your
> films.
>
> Peace,
> Cameron Bailey
>
--------
PS from Steve Smith. I'm sure all our subscribers join in wishing
Cameron well. He has performed a wonderful service to the development
of African cinema in helping to build a market for it in North America.
THANK YOU CAMERON!
In-Reply-To: 199712041636.IAA24714@abraham.xc.org