Inside Buffalo documentary – NY Premiere

CENTERPIECE SCREENING Friday, December 4 @ 8:00PM Cowin Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY as part of the African Diaspora Film Festival.

Inside Buffalo is a full length documentary about the 92nd infantry division, an African American segregated unit, which consisted of 15,000 soldiers, who served in Italy during WW II. They were called “Buffalo Soldiers,” and those who survived found that their contributions went unnoticed upon their return to United Stated of America. 

Afro-Italian filmmaker Fred Kudjo Kuwornu explores his own heritage and the history of Afro-American forces in Italy during the Second World War in this documentary about an untold story of ordinary people, Italians and African Americans, who came together during a terrible time to act in a morally righteous manner.

It is a 2008 meeting with Spike Lee – who was shooting “Miracle at St. Anna” on location in Tuscany — that inspired Kuwornu to start this very personal voyage of discovery culminating in the powerful documentary.

By Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, Italy/USA, 2009, 59min, documentary, English and Italian with English subtitles.

Spike Lee’s film “Miracle at St. Anna” draws fire -

The American film director Spike Lee has provoked a furious row in Italy with his latest film, Miracle at Sant’Anna, which centres on the role of black soldiers in liberating Italy and includes a story line about 1944 massacre in the Tuscan town of Sant’Anna di Stazzema. By depicting the Partisans, the Italian resistance which fought against the Nazis and fascists in the last two years of the Second World War, as partially to blame for one of the worst massacres of the war, he has put a large American boot into an issue which, though 60 years old, is for many Italians still a matter of acute sensitivity.   – article here

Panel discussion after the screening followed by a catered reception. Screening sponsored by Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University.  – source

This film had its premier in Barga in December 2008 – article here

Inside Buffalo cast: The only surviving  WW II African American Medal of Honor LT. Vernon Baker, President Bill Clinton, The survivors of Massacre of St.Anna: Enio Mancini, Adele Pardini, Enrico Pieri, Luciano Lazzeri, The Ph. D. and veteran Dr. Leroy Ramsey, who started the fight for the Medal of Honor, the 92nd vets: Joseph Stephenson,Joseph Hairston, Howard Fletcher, Ralph Brown, Frank Seaforth, Lawrence Pierce, Jesse Pearson, Spencer Moore, Albert Burke, Arch Belvia, Otis Zachary , the Tuskegee Airmen Lt. Col. Spann Watson, the award-winning writer James McBride (Miracle At St.Anna), the actors: Omar Benson Miller, Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, Usman Sharif.

I wish to express to you and those to collaborate to produce the project , the deep appreciation for the significant story of the events of the 92nd Division of the US Army deployed in Tuscany in 1944 to fight alongside the partisans versus the nazi troops.The testimonies and stories of the still alive African-American soldiers and italian partisans are a warning to not forget the horrors of the war and to promote the valour of Peace! – PRESIDENT GIORGIO NAPOLITANO. President of Republic of Italy

Joseph Hairston, veterano dalla 92° Divisione Buffalo in Barga was in Barga during September – article here

• La Vacanza – Bernard Moscardini
• Inside Buffalo film now on Amazon
• Joseph Hairston, veterano dalla 92° Divisione Buffalo in Barga
• Inside Buffalo documentary film
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