FunkJazz Kafe

Hopefully you read my post yesterday regarding Viva Riva! at the National Black Arts Festival. Today I want to tell you about FunkJazz Kafe: Diary of a Decade, which I also saw during the NBAF Film Series.

I loved this documentary. Atlanta has a rich musical history; however there have been periods of time that have left a profound impact not only on this region but on the world. One of those being from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s when a cultural, musical, and, for some, spiritual movement was born at the FunkJazz Kafe arts and music festival.

This movie is the story of a cultural legend as told by the innovators of an important, and in some cases overlooked, era in Black culture. From the rise of the FunkJazz Kafe, to exploring the definition of soul music, and contending that there is a far-reaching conspiracy to silence it, Diary of a Decade is a story of an often overlooked era in Black music and culture. FunkJazz Kafe looks at a decade when Atlanta's underground music scene became established on the world stage and a new generation of soul singers and musicians arose.

Watch the extended trailer below to see commentary and performances from some of the greats: Professor Grif, Raphael Saadiq, Janelle Monae, Bone Crusher, Andre 3000, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jill Scott, DJ Kemit, The Chronicle, Roy Ayers, MC Lyte, Common, Dick Gregory, Jamal Ahmad, Algebra, N'Dea Davenport, Jaime Foxx, Joi Gilliam, Caron Wheeler, Dallas Austin, Doug E. Fresh, Speech, Talib Kweli, Ray Murray, Cee Lo Green, Eric Roberson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Goodie Mob, Van Hunt, Loose Ends, Anthony David, Cornel West, Larry Mizell, George Clinton, Chuck D, and Stickman of Dead Prez.

Viva Riva!!!!!!!

Last month I had the privilege to attend the National Black Arts Festival’s Film Series. I watched five movies from 2:30pm to 12:30am. They were: Stubborn as a Mule!, Shaft or Sidney Poitier: The Emergence of Black Masculinity in Comic Book, Viva Riva!, The Inheritance, and FunkJazz Kafe: Diary of A Decade.

While all the movies were interesting my favorites were Viva Riva! and FunkJazz Kafe: Diary of A Decade.

Viva Riva! is a Congolese repackaging of the revenge thriller and it has distinctive African beats that I absolutely love. I sat on the edge of my seat the whole movie. Unlike an American revenge thriller the viewer has no idea what is going to happen next, there are actually, “Really?” moments.

Opening in Kinshasa, a chaotic city of hustlers, casual sex and easy violence, we are immediately made aware of a fuel shortage. The story centers on Riva, played by Patsha Bay Mukuna, an incorrigible thief who has just arrived from Angola with a truckload of stolen gas. Riva is a small time operator, who, with a pocket full of cash (U.S. dollars, the preferred currency of the black market) sets out in this seductively vibrant and lawless town to have a good time.

Things take a turn when Riva falls in love with Nora, played by Manie Malone, the light skinned kept woman of a local gang lord. In a subplot the fellows Riva stole the gas from arrive in Kinshasa wanting nothing more than their gas and Riva’s death.

Everybody, from the priest to the female commander, is out for themselves; conniving and swindling with ease, crime and corruption grease every transaction. There are sex scenes that would have been cut from American films and the violence is colorful and glitzy.

Viva Riva! is indicative of the lawlessness, sexism, exploitation and anarchism in the deeply troubled Congo. The only educated person in the movie, Nora, makes it clear, "In this country, money is like poison. In the end, it always kills you."

TOMORROW: FunkJazz Kafe: Diary of a Decade