Namibia: Independence Now! directed by Pearl Bowser and Chris Choy (Namibia/United States, 1985, 55 min)

preceded by Why I Do It - A Conversation with Pearl Bowser directed by Louis Massiah, edited by Nobu Massiah (2024, 18 minutes)

Join us for a celebration of Pearl Bowser (1931 - 2023), heralded as the Godmother of Black Independent Cinema. Although a life-long New Yorker, as a filmmaker, film exhibitor, archivist and scholar, Bowser traveled the globe screening and promoting films from the African Diaspora. Her research and writing is responsible for re-introducing the work of Oscar Micheaux and has had a profound impact on our understanding of the history of cinema. Bowser was also the director of Third World Newsreel, board chair of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, and founder of African Diaspora Images, an oral and visual history initiative. Namibia: Independence Now! is a moving film shot inside refugee settlements in Zambia and Angola. It examines how exiled Namibians worked to free their country from illegal South African exploitation and prepare for their country's independence. It shows many aspects of their daily life in exile, especially the women, who were at the forefront of the independence struggle. It focuses on the activities of exiled Namibian independence leader General Toivo ya Toivo, filmed just weeks after his negotiated release from a South African prison.