FOURTH CULTURE KIDS
The term “Third Culture Kid” has grown in popularity as a way to describe children who are raised between two cultures – the daughter of a traditional Kenyan* chief who attends boarding school in Switzerland, for example. But what of new generations that will be raised between increasingly blurred cultural lines – and increasingly, in the hypnagogic glow of the Internet itself? Where non-Western youth once traded cars for Levi’s jeans and treasured bootlegged Michael Jackson cassettes, now the Fourth Culture Kids are doing it for themselves. In this program we look at the eternal joys and “growing pains” of adolescence, now lived in the flux of language, values, and aesthetics: Western memes, sports, and entertainment reprogrammed by and for the Global South.
Kitintale – Yann Gross (Uganda 2008,11:36 min)
Meet the pioneering skaters of Kitintale, Uganda.
Bikelordz: Stunts and Styles from Accra – Mikey Freedom Hart (Ghana 2011, excerpt)
A short documentary about the self-taught, self-invented bicycle culture which young people in Accra have created and passed on to their younger contemporaries over time.
Heavy Metal in Baghdad – Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi (USA/Canada 2007, 01:48 min)
A documentary feature film that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda (Latin for a deadly black scorpion native to Iraq) – from the fall of Saddam Hussein to their escape from Iraq.
Sh*t Punjabi/Ghanaian Moms Say – Superwoman/ GirlsLoveYourCurls (Canada 2012, 03:09 min)
The meme that just won’t die, now adapted by every diasporan genera- tion to lovingly mock their parents. A few of the funniest recent additions to the canon.
Mexican Emos Unite! – BBC (UK/Mexico 2008, 02:55 min)
BBC World News reports on the battle between Emo’s and Punks in Mexico.
Indonesian Little Monsters Flash Club 0 projectlilmonid (Indonesia 2012,10:37 min)
Though Lady Gaga had to cancel her Indonesian concerts, her biggest fans held a flash mob in her honour in Jakarta.
Cabo Snoop “Windek” Music Video – Unknown artist (Angola 2010, 03:50 min)
Angolan kuduro superstar Cabo Snoop paints a candy-coloured portrait of stylish youth through the lens of modern technology.
Just a Band “Ha-He (Makmende)” Jim Chuchu and Mbithi Masya (Kenya 2010, 05:25 min)
“Makmende” is the wildly viral 1970s styled music video by Kenya’s Just a Band.
Cheng Zhang De Fan Nao (Growing Pains) – Rutherford Chang (China/USA 2012, 24:15 min)
A reinterpretation of the iconic Amer- ican sitcom “Growing Pains” through the voices of the post-80s Chinese generation who grew up watching the show, one of the very first Western programs aired on Chinese television.