Claire Andrade-Watkins
Directing
Biography
Dr. Claire Andrade-Watkins, a 2nd generation born Cape Verdean American, is an award-winning historian and filmmaker. She is Professor of Film and African Studies at the Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College; a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University; and a Distinguished Community Practitioner & Senior Fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University. A 1995 Fulbright Scholar, her scholarship focuses on French and Portuguese-speaking African cinema. She has published in Society for Visual Anthropology, Research in African Literature, The Independent Film and Video Monthly, American Historical Review, and CinémAction. In June 2016, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA presented a retrospective of her work, Our Rhode: 30 Years of Cinema By and About Cape Verdean Rhode Islanders. Her critically acclaimed first feature film, “Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?”: A Cape Verdean American Story was released in 2006 and her work has aired on WGBH-TV, WSBE TV, Rhode Island PBS, cable cast on P.E.G.-TV RI, and leading festivals of Africana Diaspora in the USA, Europe and Africa. Competitive festival screenings for Serenata de Amor (2013) A Cape Verdean love story told in song include Oia! Festival, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde, 2015, Roxbury International Film Festival 2014, Official Selection, Athens International Film & Video Festival 2014, Showcase Selection, Lucerne International Film Festival, 2014 and Official Selection,Madrid International Film Festival, for Best Music in Film 2014.
Known For
The untold tragedy and scandal of what happened to a vibrant community of immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands in the Fox Point section of Providence, Rhode Island who were forcibly displaced by urban renewal to make way for fancy coffee shops, antique stores and elegantly restored houses. Poignant, heartfelt and warm, in a timeless snapshot SKFPR captures the essence, spirit and heart of a community whose history was erased before it was written.
"Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?": A Cape Verdean American Story
A conversation about sex and death winds its way between six college kids.
Tron Wayne Gacy
Originally titled, "Espirito de Cabo Verde"
The Spirit of Cape Verde
Although written documents record more than 350 years of events in North America, they reveal little about what everyday life was like. The three segments of this magazine-format film explore the current work of historical archaeologists at three sites across the United States. Details of peoples' lives are revealed in excavations at slave quarters on St. Simon Island, slag heaps in northern California mining towns occupied between 1859-1902, and subway construction sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where urban archaeologists devise new methods to discover artifacts in land still used.
Other People's Garbage
This experimental short film is about a little girl who lost her home to urban renewal, and asks her wealthy neighbor, "why?" The film is a prequel to Andrade-Watkins' documentary trilogy about the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point. "Hi, Neighbor" had its world premiere at the 2011 Cape Verdean International Film Festival and was awarded Jury Selection (first prize), in the 2012 Black Maria Film Festival.