Atlantic Portals

What is Atlantic Portals about?

Atlantic Portals is the second film in a trilogy of  feature length documentaries about the Cape Verdean community in the Fox Point section of Providence, Rhode Island: the second oldest and largest community of Cape Verdeans in the world, outside of the Cape Verde Islands. Atlantic Portals picks up where the critically acclaimed Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican? A Cape Verdean American Story (2006) left off, with the displacement of the community in the 1960s as a result of urban renewal and gentrification.

Atlantic Portals brings the story back to Cape Verde in search of “home” only to return to Fox Point with the recognition that being Cape Verdean is a state of mind, not just a zip code, and survives in our memory and in the telling of the story.

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Where are we now?
We’re in active post-production, meaning we’re hunkered down working on editing, sound design, motion graphics, and the transfer of rare archival materials that are in very fragile condition – 8mm, super 8mm film and video footage. Of the $50,000 we need to finish, we’ve received $10,000 through re-pledged donations to Center for Independent Documentary from the kickstarter project we launched in April 2011.

What do we need?
Our Kickstarter campaign got us rolling, and helped us finish “Hi, Neighbor”, a 13 min short, ‘memory conversation’, where a little girl who lost her home to urban renewal asks her wealthy neighbor, ‘Why?’ A classic story of American immigrants and what happens when society displaces them. The piece is  the prequel to the trilogy and the opening sequence for Atlantic Portals.  It’s a stand along short, and it had its world premiere October, 2011 in Cape Verde, at the Cape Verdean International Film Festival. We still need to raise the other $40,000 to finish, so we are working on fundraising, asking, and grant writing. Please consider making a donation and receive from the rewards listed below.

…Contribute to This Film

Donation $10 or more Foxpointer: Donor’s name on the Atlantic Portals website and the film’s credits.

Donation $25 or more Granny’s: A digital download of the finished film, an audio CD of Candida Rose “KabuMerikana: The Sum of Me,” a voice from the other side of the Atlantic. www.candidarose.net (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS)  $15.00 off  one entrée (minimum two) Rosinha’s Restaurant(Pawtucket, RI)(June l, 2011-August 31, 2011) http://rosinhasrestaurant.com/

Donation $50 or more Working the Boats: A nod to Local 1329 of the I.L.A. (International Longshormen’s Association) founded in 1933. Reward a special edition ATLANTIC PORTALS DVD sub-titled in Portuguese and French. You’ll also receive access to the digital download AND a copy of SKFPR on DVD (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS).

Donation $100 or more Atlantico: A salute to culture, history, and music, this incentive rewards from both sides of the Atlantic- a SKFPR signed poster (8 ½” x 17”) and an audio CD of Maria de Barros’s album “Morabeza”,  maria@mariadebarros.com CD Mendes Brothers, Porton de Regresso http://www.facebook.com/mendes.brothers (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS).

Donation $250 or more-VIP: This reward includes “VIP Tickets to the final cut sneak premiere at CABLE CAR CINEMA with an after party in Providence, Rhode Island. You will also receive Associate Producer credit on the finished film and your name appears in the end credits under Associate Producer. (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS)

Donation $500 or more Fox Point Walkabout: Walking tour with the Director of Atlantic Portals of old Cape Verdean community in the Fox Point section of Providence, Rhode Island ending in brunch at a Cape Verdean restaurant (Rosinha’s). (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS)

Donation $1,000 or more Packet Captain: This reward includes a special Producer credit on the film! You’ll also receive a limited edition print of the poster. (PLUS ALL OF THE EARLIER REWARDS)

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When and where is Atlantic Portals going to be shown when completed?

We’ve moved the North American/USA Premiere to the MFA in Boston in Spring 2012– followed by a RI PBS broadcast on WSBE TV 36. This is pretty impressive for a little story with grassroots support and a big heart!
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Claire Andrade-Watkins is an Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. Her scholarship focuses on French and Portuguese language African cinema. Since 2007 she has been a Visiting Scholar at Brown University in the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, and has held an appointment as a Swearer Center Community Fellow in 2008 and 2009. She was selected in 2009 as a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Film, and has received grants for her documentaries from the LEF Foundation, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. She was a 1995-1996 Fulbright Scholar in Cape Verde, and a recipient of an American Philosophical Society grant in l997. She is the founder and President of SPIA Media Productions, Inc., a production and distribution company specializing in media from the Africana Diaspora.

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