AL SANTANA HAS BEEN A MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK-BASED BLACK DOCUMENTARY COLLECTIVE (BDC/NY) FROM THE BEGINNING BUT HE'S BEEN A PRODUCTIVE FILMMAKER FOR FAR LONGER. COME OUT AND CELEBRATE AL SANTANA'S OCTOBER 1 RETROSPECTIVE AT THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM) ROSE CINEMA. YOU OWE IT YOURSELF TO SEE HIS WORK (DURBAN 400, VOICES OF THE GODS,ONE PEOPLE). SEE YOU THERE...
ST.CLAIR BOURNE
Brooklyn Academy of Music�to showcase work�of Fort Greene�filmmaker
BY JOYCE SHELBY�(NY DAILY NEWS)
Fort Greene filmmaker�and documentarian Al Santana is not one to shy away from controversial topics. In his 29-year career, he has tackled everything from gentrification of New York neighborhoods to reparations for the descendants of African slaves.
A retrospective of Santana's work will be shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Rose Cinemas on Oct. 1. "It feels good to have my work shown in my own community," said Santana, whose documentaries, films and videos have aired on network and public television. He has had screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival.
Santana said he never sets out just to raise eyebrows with his work. "I make films about things that are of interest to me and things I see happening around me in my own personal life and the life of my community," he said. "There are lots of films with no redeeming social or cultural value. They're just silly. There's enough room for that," Santana said. "But I'm going to continue doing what I have to do."
With co-producer Denise Santiago, Santana is now doing a documentary about Merchant Marines of color. In 2001, he went to South Africa to make "Durban 400," a documentary about African-Americans at a United Nations conference seeking reparations for the descendants of African slaves. Earlier this year, Santana and co-producer Laura Fowler addressed gentrification in New York at the end of "One People." "Poor people are being pushed out," he said. "I've heard so many people who have raised their children here and now they're concerned the children will have nowhere to live when they come back from college."
Santana's own daughter, Rafia, is a student at Edward R. Murrow High School; son Ali is also a Brooklyn filmmaker, and Santana's wife, Marilyn Nance, is a photographer and educator. Santana, who was born in Brooklyn, lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant's Marcy Houses for nine years before moving to St. Albans, Queens. After serving in the Air Force, he went to college intending to become a dentist. "But I took a film class," he said, "and I was bitten by the bug." Santana worked as a television cameraman and made training films for the old Transit Authority before going independent.
"Al exists at the perfect intersection of technical mastery, aesthetic ingenuity and political involvement," said Jake Perlin, assistant curator for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAMcin�matek film series. "Each element can be found in a lot of good filmmaking, but all three together are a rarity." |