MAYA ANGELOU AND STILL I RISE,
by Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack’s,
opens the 12th Montreal International Black Film Festival
as a Quebec Premiere
Wednesday, 28 September 2016, Cinéma Impérial, 7PM.
Montreal, 13 September 2016 – The Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF), established by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, begins its 12th edition with the Quebec premiere of Maya Angelou and Still I Rise, a documentary by Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack. The opening ceremony will be on Wednesday, 28 September, 7PM at Cinéma Impérial – in the presence of the film directors.
“We are pleased and proud to open the Festival with a documentary about ‘an extraordinary woman.” MIBFF president and Founder Fabienne Colas stated. “‘Speak up/Exprime-toi’ is this year’s Festival underlying theme. Through the films we selected, this year’s programming has attempted to showcase a story, a person, a movement that made itself known, overcame conventions, or demonstrated a willingness to make demands and change the state of affairs. We couldn’t have chosen a more courageous and expressive model than Dr. Maya Angelou,” she concluded.
Maya Angelou and Still I Rise is the first documentary focusing on the poet, writer, actor, dancer, and civil rights activist who became an emblematic figure of American history. Friends in Dr. Angelou’s inner circle, with their unmatched access to her life, are taking this opportunity to tell the world about this great woman and her life journey. Maya Angelou and Still I Rise is a skillful biography of a woman who became a global symbol for peace, humility, and freedom. This documentary allows us to uncover Dr. Angelou’s lesser known fragments of her life that made her an exceptional woman in all the work she did.
“Most people know the surface persona of Maya Angelou as a writer, poet and civil-rights activist, but few know the amazing breadth of her personal life. A warm, celebratory documentary on the renaissance woman…” – The Hollywood Reporter.
“One of the foremost 20th-century shapers of an African-American literature and identity, the subject of “Maya Angelou and Still I Rise” wore many hats in a long, complicated life that has been given valedictory treatment in Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack’s documentary”. – Variety.
“Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise. The opportunity to spend time exploring the rich and complex life, as painful as it was joyous, of this exceptional writer was as nourishing as it sounds”. – Los Angeles Times
“What Coburn Whack and Hercules do so well is capture Angelou’s power and elegance, which seems to have increased as she got older. No hagiography, it paints a portrait of a life lived to the full and dedicated to being true to oneself”. – The Guardian
The 12th Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF), the brainchild of the Fabienne Colas Foundation, will be held from September 28 to October 2, 2016.
About the Montreal International Black Film Festival – MIBFF
Created in 2005 by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, the Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF) is currently the largest film festival in Canada entirely dedicated to black reality from all four corners of the globe. It aims to offer the public the most spectacular productions in black cinema, in addition to being a place to debate the great cultural, social, and socio-economic issues facing society. The objective of the MIBFF is to promote the development of the independent film industry, and showcase more films on black realities across the world. The festival seeks to prioritize those other films: those films from here and from abroad that do not necessarily come under the spotlight, a new cinema that moves its audience and raises awareness – and a few eyebrows. And in doing so, the aim is to address issues and showcase art that makes you think and smile, and provokes, bewilders, and shocks you—a new, fresh look at black cinema from all four corners of the globe! www.montrealblackfilm.com
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For more information, interviews, and promotional material:
Press relations manager: Dominique Argant – presse@montrealblackfilm.com – 514 663-4588
Coordinator (French-speaking): Fadwa Lapierre – fadwa@montrealblackfilm.com – 514 884-9545
Press agent (English-speaking): Danny Payne – danny@montrealblackfilm.com – 514 621-8657
