Filmmaker and Fulbright alumnus Jeremy Xido, and his award winning documentary film, Death Metal Angola, was selected as the inaugural FAIR program awardee (2013-2014). The film tells the story of Sonia Ferreira, a survivor of 27 years of war, lover of rock music, and mother to 55 orphans, as she and her partner, the death metal musician Wilker Flores, mount Angola’s first-ever national rock concert. Their dream is to help their country recover from decades of war…through the power of music. Trailer: https://vimeo.com/31745127
Dubbed “raucously crowd pleasing” by the Hollywood Reporter, a “cult classic in the making” by the Huffington Post and “a beautifully shot, superb film” by indieWIRE, Death Metal Angola has screened for sell-out crowds at dozens of film festivals around the world and had its NYC premiere on November 16th at the prestigious DOC NYC Festival along with a panel discussion on Filming Outside Your Turf: Case Studies on Resilience on November 18th at the IFC Center, with directors Jeremy Xido (Death Metal Angola), fellow Fulbrighter Lisa Biagiotti (deepsouth), and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Detropia).
The Greater New York Chapter launched the FAIR program in 2013 to incubate New York-based alumni projects that embody the Fulbright mission of international understanding, through thematic programming throughout the year as well as mentoring and support. Jeremy Xido and his film DEATH METAL ANGOLA film were pivotal in launching this program, which has been a resounding success, from the initial presentation of the trailer at one of our chapter’s salons, to numerous screenings and subsequent awards, community roundtables and events, and eventually the film's theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles. During this time, Jeremy was also an Arts Envoy with the State Department, conveying cultural understanding and ambassadorship through art. He was subsequently invited to give an electrifying TEDxFulbright talk that traced the path of slave trading from Angola to Portugal to the US, and juxtaposed it with his own personal experiences of Detroit and Angola.
Our 2013-2014 Fulbright NY Alumnus-in-Residence, Jeremy Xido, speaking at TEDxFulbright
The DMA Resilience Tour
In partnership with the Fulbright Alumnus-in-Residence (FAIR) program, the DMA RESILIENCE TOUR was created. The tour is a community development program involving screenings and town halls in cities that have been hit hard by economic and natural disasters. It's about how we can rebuild from the devastation of economic deprivation, crime and/or natural disaster. The tour includes Fulbright preview screenings and town halls on resilience in Los Angeles, Washington, DC and New York.
PAST SCREENINGS:
Los Angeles: November 7th-13th at AMC Burbank Town Center 8 (Special Fulbright screening/town hall on Nov 9th)
Washington, D.C.: Special Fulbright screening/town hall on November 19th at the Landmark
New York: November 21st-23rd at Cinema Village (Special Fulbright screening/town hall on November 22nd)
LINKS:
DMA's partnership with Fulbright Association's Greater New York Chapter & the FAIR program:http://bit.ly/FAIRDMApost
Jeremy Xido's TEDxFulbright talk: http://youtu.be/RblakAuoG8c
DEATH METAL ANGOLA website: www.deathmetalangola.com
DEATH METAL ANGOLA Trailer: https://vimeo.com/31745127
PRESS FOR DEATH METAL ANGOLA:
“Jeremy Xido’s Death Metal Angola : A Cult Classic in the Making” Huffington Post
“Absorbing, beautifully shot documentary. I predict a long festival life, if not more, for Xido’s superb film” Indiewire
“Raucously crowd pleasing, enticingly exotic, clangorous, rousingly energetic, promising big-screen debut for Detroit-born globetrotter Jeremy Xido” The Hollywood Reporter
FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION & DEATH METAL ANGOLA PRESS HIGHLIGHTS:
Featured in the Daily Beast mentioning Fulbright & Resilience Tour campaign: http://thebea.st/1d5Jyri
Featured in in MusicFilmWeb: http://bit.ly/DMAmusicfilmweb
Featured in DNAInfo (Greater NY Chapter is quoted): http://bit.ly/DMAdna
JEREMY XIDO’S BIO
Originally from Detroit, Jeremy graduated cum laude in Painting and Comparative Literature from Columbia University in New York and trained at the Actor’s Studio. Since 2003 he has been the artistic co-director of the performance and film company CABULA6, which was voted "Company of the Year 2009" by Europe's prestigious performance magazine, Ballettanz, and awarded "Outstanding Artist of the Year 2010" by the Austrian Ministry of the Arts. CABULA6 has produced and presented work for both film and stage all over the world. Jeremy’s film directing credits include the award winning feature documentary DEATH METAL ANGOLA, the six part CRIME EUROPE series, and the short documentary MACONDO in addition to several short fiction films. He is known in Europe as a performance artist with a unique artistic voice and approach to stage and film, blending emotionally gripping personal stories with the larger social contexts within which they emerge – including the recent trilogy THE ANGOLA PROJECT which premiered at Impulstanz in Vienna and PS122 in New York. Working as a dancer, actor and filmmaker, he has performed and presented work around the world on stage, TV and in Cinema. He speaks English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese and is based in Harlem, NYC. For more info, go to www.xido.org