The showcase was coordinated by notable award winning American documentary filmmakers Bart Weiss and Kim Synder .
The Lagos event was held at the Ozone Cinema in Yaba on Thursday August 5, and at the Public Affairs Section on Broad Street, Lagos, on Friday August 6, 2010. Followed by a cocktail party attended by the participants, including the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Renée Sanders.
Kim Synder's Welcome to Shelbyville got a well deserved standing ovation.
Welcome to Shelbyville is a glimpse of America at a crossroads. In one small town in the heart of America's Bible Belt in the South, a community grapples with rapidly changing demographics. Just a stone's throw away from Pulaski, Tennessee (the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan), longtime African-American and White residents are challenged with how best to integrate with a growing Latino population and the more recent arrival of hundreds of Somali refugees of Muslim faith.
Set on the eve of the 2008 US Presidential election, the film captures the interaction between these residents as they navigate new waters against the backdrop of a tumultuous year. The economy is in crisis, factories are closing, and jobs are hard to find. The local Tyson chicken plant is hiring hundreds of new Somali refugees, and when a local reporter initiates a series of articles about these newcomers, a flurry of controversy and debate erupts within the town. Just as the Latino population grapples with its own immigrant identity, African-American residents look back at their segregated past and balance perceived threats to their livelihood and security against the values that they learned through their own long struggle for civil rights. While the newcomers, mostly of Muslim faith, attempt to make new lives for themselves and their children, leaders in this deeply religious community attempt to guide their congregations through this period of unprecedented change.
Through the vibrant and colorful characters of Shelbyville, the film explores immigrant integration and the interplay between race, religion and identity in this dynamic dialogue. The story is an intimate portrayal of a community’s struggle to understand what it means to be American.
