David Schickele — Bushman

In 1968, Peace Corps veteran David Schickele enlisted his friend Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam to star in a light-hearted comedy about the adventures of a young Nigerian intellectual in San Francisco. Using a docu-fictional style reminiscent of Cassavetes' Shadows, the film observes the foibles of late 1960s African-American culture with an outsider's incisive eye. The result is a vibrant snapshot of the nation's racial politics, from interracial romance to cross-cultural misunderstandings and countercultural joy. Truth is stranger than fiction in Bushman, a rare sort of film portrait, part document, part imagined - poetic in its approach to real events.

about

David Schickele (1937 – 1999) was an American musician, film director, and actor. His grandfather René Schickele (1883-1940) was revered as a pacifist German writer, and David, also a pacifist, applied for CO status (conscientious objectors) during the Vietnam War but was denied. The Peace Corps was his option for freedom. David served as instructor in the English Department at the University of Nigeria for the Peace Corps’ flagship years 1961-63. His first film feat, the documentary “Give Me A Riddle” (1965) is the first major film about the Peace Corps experience. David’s first and most famous feature film Bushman further explored this formative part of his life, and went on to win numerous festival awards, including Best First Feature at the Chicago International Film Festival. Bushman was collected by the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley, and The Museum of Modern Art in NY for their archives. After a life of composing, performing, and conducting mostly chamber music, and of course filmmaking, David Schickele lost the battle to a brain cancer, and passed away at his own home in San Francisco at the age of 62.
schickele.net/