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Community Corner

Garifuna International Film Festival to Be Held This Weekend

If you’re still looking for something to do this weekend, Saturday kicks off the Garifuna International Film Festival.

The festival is designed to celebrate and preserve the Garifuna culture. The Garifuna consists of people who are directly descended from South American Indians, also known as Arawaks, and a group of African slaves who escaped Spanish slave ships in the seventeenth century, according to Cheryl Noralez, president and founder of the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United, Incorporated, or GAHFU.

"When people will no longer ask, 'Garifuna who,' then we’ll know we’re finally on the world map,” said Rony Figueroa, vice president of GAHFU.

The film festival will feature documentaries including the Academy Award-winning documentary, Broken Rainbow, by Victoria Mudd. She will also make a presentation entitled "Images of Indians from Reel to Real."

Another film, "Garifuna in Peril," by filmmakers Ali Allie and Ruben Reyes, will also be shown.

The Garifuna International Film Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday through Sunday at the Beyond Baroque Literary Art Center at 681 Venice Blvd. in Venice and at Mariner's Village at 4600 Via Marina in Marina del Rey.

Donations of $20 per day will be accepted at the festival. For more details, call Rony Figueroa at (323) 898-6841, or send an email to: garifunaheritagefoundation@yahoo.com.


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