Anyway here I was with this Hollywood star standing in front of me and I want to do the whole thing with the autographs but my bladder is just is not cooperating. So I just introduced myself and dashed to the loo and wondered where to get his autograph for posterity. Then I recalled that I had on me The Star and they had done a piece on "Word Is" with a picture of the man and our "Chosen one" Wanuri Kahiu. Perfect I think to myself. I will ask him to sign my newspaper and then I can floss to all that this paper was signed by THE MAN. And I leave the washroom refreshed with paper in hand and THE MAN is nowhere to be seen. NKT! I asked the attendants what time the movie I was here to watch was starting and they explain that the movie was starting presently. But the movie they were pointing me at was "Gospel Hill" by Esposito and not that Kibinge flick. Huh? The Esposito movie has the movie stars and there were many garlands showing the movie had been recognised in film festivals all over the world. Good for him I said but where is the Kibinge flick? The lass explained that there was a change of plan. They would screen first "Gospel Hill" then the Peace flick on the same screen immediately afterwards. That sounded like a good enough plan and I checked in a sat my behind down and there was THE MAN himself explaining about the process he had to go through to get this movie made. Turns out that I was in the midst of a film lab but I quietly sat and waited for the movie to begin. 

Gospel Hill is a movie about corporate (mainly white) America trying to encroach on poor peoples (mainly black) land. Now I usually have a problem with the movies that are made by liberal film makers. They usually show the downtrodden black man in American and the pain that he has to go through as a result of his race. The bad guys are ultimately the white men. And when I saw Julia Stiles on that movie I expected nothing less as she played the ultimate liberal white sympathiser in that dance movie she did a while back. She was there surely to show that white people have feelings and are with the black people too. And Angela Bassett and Samuel L were here to show battling black folk sticking it to the man. The stage was set for a White versus Black America copy and paste of gargantuan proportions... 

Only this movie throws a few spanners in the works. First this movie shows real people both white and black. It shows people who were making decisions that they had little or no choice to make in the past and in the present. An old white sheriff is show as the racist that is... or rather the human being who had to work with the circumstances he had at that time. And his son (yup the Baldwin) the most “feel nothing” character in the movie (dude is boffing the black doctor's wife for chrissakes!) turns out to be the guy with the solutions that help the poor suffering (black) community. Meanwhile the white guy you start liking as he works hard at his landscaping business turns out to be on the side of the conniving black doctor whose wife is being boffed. It’s all very confusing. This movie is compelling watching and I was engrossed as it rolled to its inevitably happy ending. But you are never too sure until the very end. This is a well written and directed movie if I say so myself. And they even throw a scene with Nia Long down to her naughty bits. What more can a man want? That you Bwana Esposito! 

After the movie ended I waited and there was no movement of the movie I came here being screened. As I leave I find a whole bunch of people leaving another screen having watched the Kibinge gem. Drat! I would have to watch that movie another day.

>> Related Links
:: KIFF Launches with Pumzi movie premier
:: Africa and the Diaspora - KIFF 2009
:: Kenya International Film festival 2009 set to open

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