Bushman

In 1968, the civil war in Nigeria is entering its second year. Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam, a young Nigerian drama student, flees to San Francisco. David Schickele wants to make a feature film about Okpokam’s experiences in his new home and casts him in the role of Gabriel. During his adventures, Gabriel encounters racism at every turn. The motorcyclist who gives him a lift is a harbinger of the racist America that is later to be the actor’s undoing. Liberal America, represented by progressive intellectuals quoting Marshall McLuhan, also comes in for criticism.

What starts as a fictional docudrama rich in subtle irony unexpectedly turns into a documentary when Okpokam is wrongly arrested during production after a strike at San Francisco State College. “Truth was not stranger than fiction, just a little faster,” Schickele says to the camera.

Schickele, originally a composer and violinist, taught English at the University of Nigeria. On his return to the US, he made Bushman, which won the Best First Feature Award at the 1971 Chicago International Film Festival. His rediscovered film has recently been restored.