Wednesday 20 October 2021 at 5:30 PM. - Charlton College of Business Auditorium, UMass Dartmouth
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- View the flyer of the event.
The UMASSD Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture and the BCC Lusocenter are pleased to announce the presentation of the docudrama film, Contract, on Wednesday 20 October 2021 at 5:30 PM. The screening will take place at the Charlton College of Business Auditorium (room 149). This will be followed by a questions and answer session with the Director, Guenny K. Pires. Doors will open at 5:15 PM. Guests should use Parking Lots 13 and 14. Face masks are required indoors.
Contract tells the story of Cape Verdean indentured servants who leave their homes in Cape Verde and travel to São Tomé and Príncipe under a work contract that will never be fulfilled. It is a personal story that documents the filmmaker’s journey to reunite his uncle with his family. After leaving Cape Verde 44 years earlier with the hope of a better life, the uncle’s reality is the same as so many others like him. He is trapped in a contract that pays only 10 cents a day and a $10 dollar life retirement from the São Tomé and Príncipe government.
Guenny K. Pires was born and raised in Cape Verde and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He earned both a BA and an MA in Visual Arts from Portugal. He is a filmmaker, a cinematographer, a professor of visual arts, and a co-founder of Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts, Incorporated.
Paula Celeste Gomes Noversa, Director of the CPSC stated, “This docudrama brings to light a heart wrenching reality that cannot be ignored. This is an important opportunity for our students and the community to gain an understanding of what is an untenable situation for many Cape Verdean families.”
This event is brought to the public in collaboration with Txan Film Productions & Visual Arts, the Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verdean Studies at Bridgewater State University, and with the Cape Verdean Association in New Bedford.
For further information, contact Clara Bordas at cbordas@umassd.edu