ONE HAND DON'T CLAP
Special Features: 35th Anniversary. Q&A with filmmaker Kavery Dutta Kaul, plus post-screening reception hosted by Camella’s Kitchen on June 8
Kavery Dutta Kaul's newly-restored 1988 documentary traces the history of calypso and soca music from their birth in the African and East Indian traditions of Trinidad and Tobago to their spread through the country's worldwide diaspora — including their popularization in the 1950s by Harry Belafonte and the new, independent distribution networks that arose to serve the expatriate community in the 1980s. Kaul's principal informants are charismatic performers Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), who found stardom in the UK in the 1950s, and the formidable Calypso Rose (Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis), who overcame prejudice against female performers to emerge as an international star in the 1960s and a Queens-based activist, entrepreneur and touring sensation in the 1980s. The film also features famed Trinidadian calypsonian Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste), who kept political and social commentary central to his music. Kitchener and Black Stalin have passed, but Rose, at 82, continues to perform and record. This digital restoration from the Academy Film Archive and the Women's Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film and Television renews the vivid colors and dynamic soundtrack of the original 16mm elements. (Note adapted from MoMA.) DIR/SCR/PROD Kavery Dutta Kaul; PROD Bhupender Kaul. U.S., 1988, color, 92 min. In English. NOT RATED
Digital restoration by the Academy Film Archive and the Women's Film Preservation Fund of New York Women in Film & Television with the support of the Leon Levy Foundation; courtesy of Riverfilms.
In Memoriam: Black Stalin (1941–2022)
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 92 Minutes
Opening Date: Thursday, June 08, 2023
Genre: Documentary - music
