"Myth of the Motherland" is a documentary film project taking young New York poets to Africa to dispel the prevalent myth that "people in the developing world are helpless victims." In 2008, filmmaker Lisa Russell will follow a group of young spoken-word artists, aged 18-23, from Urban Word NYC, on a creative-writing journey to 12 African nations to meet with scholars, writers, artists and others to address myths and biases about Africa and Africans. The experience, she says, will expose the young writers to a face of Africa they rarely see. "Giving local scholars, writers and poets a platform to mentor American youth," she says, "would flip the power dynamic we are accustomed to seeing." The documentary will be produced by Governness Films, a project of the Independent Feature Project. Hear the project's voices on MySpace. (Thanks ActALIVE.org.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham