Sugar Cane Alley, the third offering of the current Austin Film Society series Torn From the Motherland: Films from the African Diaspora, introduces us to a young boy named Jose who has grown up in the shanty towns of Martinique. Life in his village has been poor in material possessions, but rich with lessons. He has learned about race relations through his friendship with a child of mixed ethnicity, the bastard son of the Creole plantation owner. He has also learned about exploitation and defiance when a neighbor woman offers him lunch in exchange for servant work. And he has learned colorful stories about his African roots from his village mentor, Medouze.

Opportunity is not a concept that the villagers have an inherent understanding of, so when Jose is awarded with a life-changing scholarship to a good school in the capital city, a whole new world opens up to him. Unfortunately, that new world comes complete with the same old racism and biases that Jose had hoped he would escape. By using the lessons that he learned back home and rewriting the stories of the motherland that Medouze had once told him, he attempts to hold on to his culture and self, while becoming someone entirely new and ultimately stronger.

AFS Essentials: Sugar Cane Alley
Tuesday, October 30th
Alamo South Lamar
7pm, $4 / Free for AFS members
[Tickets / Info]