As part of post-festival reminiscences Conrad Festival After Hours, on 3 December at Pod Baranami Cinema we meet Colson Whitehead – author of the Pulitzer-winning Underground Railroad about the days of slavery. Rooted in the realities of the era, it is not a historical tale but rather a literary vision of slavery intertwining facts with the author’s surreal imagery to present the tragic historical and cultural heritage with an almost allegorical vision of individual search for freedom and happiness. The underground railway was the name given by abolitionists to a complex network of secret routes, safe houses and contacts helping runaway slaves escape to northern states or Canada in search of longed-for freedom. “Is America the country of second chances? Of redemption? An oasis of freedom?” asks Grzegorz Jankowicz, moderator of the meeting with the author. He adds, “The novel tells the story of the days when for some people the only salvation was an escape from the country.”
After the meeting we will see the Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro. The director Raoul Peck uses fragments of the unfinished and unpublished novel by the acclaimed African-American novelist and essayist James Baldwin, combining them with archival films and photos to tell the story of racial segregation, oppression and the long fight for civil rights in the US. Peck’s film takes us on a journey through institutionalised racism from slavery, racial segregation and enduring stereotypes and divisions (such as those in today’s pop culture and film industry) and present-day discrimination on legislative, educational and employment levels. In the words of James Baldwin, “The history of blacks in America is the history of America, and it is not a pleasant history.”
