Filmmaker and
screenwriter Dwayne Johnson-Cochran’s new and acclaimed documentary film about avant
garde jazz musician Kahil El’Zabar, titled Be Known, will be screened at the 8th annual Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers –
West, which takes place at the American Film Institute facilities in Los Angeles on Saturday April 12th.
Showing along
with Roger Ross Williams’ God Loves
Uganda and D. Channsin Berry’s The
Black Line (Profile of the
African-American Woman), Be Known is a “warts and all” exploration of
the life and career of a truly original artist who has been “modern jazz’s kept secret” for decades.
Unique and
totally someone who moves to the beat of different drummer, El’Zabar is world
renowned as a true innovator, a teacher and one of the truly original voices
and presences in jazz music, and has been for decades.
And as I have
said before about the film, it is not only a riveting portrait
chronicling the day-by-day, gig–to-gig struggle and harried life of a working musician,
it’s also a portrait of the sometimes comic and sometimes downright insulting
indignities that comes with the job. But the film also
reveals the perspective of a very complicated person – a teacher and a rascal,
a brilliant charismatic musician who is deeply flawed and yet strangely
fascinating at the same time.
There will be
also a Q and A panel with the all the filmmakers, which will be moderated by
film producer Stephanie Allain.
The event
will take place at the Mark Goodson
Theater at the American Film Institute
located in 2021 Western Ave in L.A.
For more info go HERE.
