Re-Discovering Fanon: Preview to a work in progress

Re-Discovering Fanon: Preview to a work in progress
An evening with outtakes and director Rico Speight

Re-Discovering Fanon will make evident Fanon’s unrelenting hatred of racism and his uncompromising determination to set forth a dialectic of disalienation in order to bring about a new humanity. Using quotes from his writings, archival footage, still images, and interviews with scholars, colleagues and family members, the documentary will probe the question, “Who was Frantz Fanon?”

Rico Speight is an independent producer/director/writer of film and theatre; he is also a film and video editor and educator. His production credits include documentaries, narratives, television productions, web productions and live theatre. His documentary, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?, the first installment of a two part series on the parallel lives of African American and Black South African young people was released in 1997; in 1999, that documentary screened at the 52nd Cannes International Film Festival. In 2007, Speight released a follow-up production titled, Where Are They Now?, that is a sequel to Who’s Gonna Take The Weight?

For Re-Discovering Fanon, Rico traveled to Martinique in 2005 and conducted extensive research for the documentary; in November of 2007 he began actual production in Martinique, interviewing members of Fanon’s family in Fort de France. He currently lectures on film production at Sarah Lawrence College and is a freelance television studio director for CUNY Television and NYU-TV in New York City.