After more than half a century, the docu-fiction will return to the cinemas in 4K.
US-based film distribution companies Kino Lorber and Milestone Film and Video have announced the release of a 4K restoration of the 1971 film Bushman centred around a Nigerian immigrant, Paul Okpokam in the US in the 1960s.
This new restoration will premier in the US at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on February 2nd, 2023 after many years being inaccessible to the public. However, it will make its screening debut next week on January 15th, 2023 at The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) film preservation festival.
The University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding from Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, carried out the 4k restoration of the initial work by David Schickele in 1971.
1971 film about Nigerian immigrant in ’60s U.S ‘Bushman’ returns to cinemas
Paul Okpokam and David Schickele [Viennale]
The 75-minute docu-fictional comedy sheds light on Peace Corps veteran, David Schickele enlisting his Nigerian friend, Paul Okpokam in 1968 to film a light-hearted comedy about the adventures of an African in San Francisco, America.
The production soon turns to a real-life tale of Okpokam’s encounter with the racial tensions of America, including interracial relationships and cultural clashes, with him being wrongfully accused of terrorism during the events of a strike at the college, one-year detention and eventual deportation.
It was however a dark time both in the United States and in Nigeria, as the US was facing unrest following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. And the Biafra Civil War was taking its course in Nigeria.
At the time of reporting, the new production had not spoken publicly about if the 4K cinematic restoration of Bushman will extend to cinemas in Nigeria.
