The past decade was turbulent and brought many important moments to our lives and our activities in the film industry. Just over the last two years, we released "Gospel Hill," "Youssou N'Dour: Return to Gorée," "Maria Bethania: Music is Perfume" and the controversial "Made in Jamaica." Music was the thing here at ArtMattan Productions headquarters.


Theatrical releases of Independent and Foreign Language films were many and diverse all over the country, with some more exciting than others. As some companies folded, other started and the turbulence in the field was intense and sometimes very emotional.


For ArtMattan Productions, it was business as usual. Getting to release a film in theaters was a nightmare, audiences were very slow to respond, press coverage sketchy, cultural protectionism rampant and most of all, the intense racial profiling did not diminish at all. But, in general, everything was cool and dandy.


Several of ArtMattan films managed to go beyond the traditional hurdles an d were exposed to audiences in different cities in the United States. Some of them were important titles of this past decade and appear in the Unofficial List Of Important Films Of The Decade. We are sure we forgot some films. Therefore, those of you reading this message can feel free to add or delete as many as you want as this is not an "official list of experts" in any way, shape or form.


The Rotten Tomatoes ratings were sometimes taken into consideration for the selection of the films in the list as well as our personal taste, for some of the titles had a limited release and did not really catch the imagination of people. However, film critics reacted to them and, in many cases, rated some of those films much better than the o nes that had a comparatively wider release. This is the case for example of "Yousou N'Dour: Return to Goree" and "Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love." "Return to Goree" got better ratings by the critics. However, exhibitors and bookers overlooked the critics and did not pick this film up as they should have. That brings us to a crucial question: what does it take for a film to get into the imagination of bookers and audiences and become a B.O. success?



We are still looking for answers as we do not know yet if i t is the initial Box Office results, good evaluations by critics, or Santeria marketing that it takes to have a title programmed in theaters and keep it moving from theaters to theatres around the nation.



There is all kind of explanations to push a good film out of theaters. However, the impoverishment of the theatrical offerings goes beyond understanding when one sees the good quality of films available that never show up on American screens.


Some of the films on this list might not be on any other lists even though all did get a theatrical release. Positive critical reviews support their inclusion in this selection to a certain extent. This is the case of "Daratt/Dry Season" for example. Other titles are here because we think they brought to audiences something out of the ordinary that was worth seeing.

Well, enough said. Here is our Unofficial List of Important Films of the Decade (in no particular order):


-Tyson
-Sugar
-Invictus
-Precious
-The Princess and the Frog
-Made in Jamaica
-Youssou N'Dour: Return to Goree
-Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I love
-Maria Bethania: Music Is Perfume
-Daratt/ Dry Season
-The Tracker
-Otomo
-Kirikou and the Sorceress
-Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death
-M asai: The Rain Warriors
-Medicine for Melancholy
-Skin
-35 Shots of Rum
-Ballast
-Trouble the Water
-Gospel Hill
-Yacoubian Building
-Passing Strange
-The Other World
-Hurt Locker
-Drumline
-Bamako
-American Violet
-Remember the Titans
-Moolade
-Akeelah and the Bee
-Ray
-Faat Kine
-Rabbit Proof Fence
-Ten Canoes
-Dreamgirls
-Hotel Rwanda
-Goodbye Solo
-Goodbye Momo
-The Pursuit of Happiness
-The End of Poverty?
-A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy
-Honeydripper
-Tyler Perry's I can Do Bad All By Myself
-Sia, The Dream Of The Python
-Manderlay
-Days Of Glory
-Tsotsi
-Idlewild
-Madame Sata
-Disgrace