Kenya in the ’50s

    “Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots,” a documentary by Kenny Mann, will be screened tonight at 7 at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. The film premiered at the Hamptons Take 2 documentary film festival in December.

    Ms. Mann’s parents were Jewish refugees who fled from Romania to Kenya in 1942. Born four years later, the filmmaker grew up in Kenya and lived there until she graduated from the University of Nairobi in 1968.

    Set against the background of the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s and Kenya’s independence in 1963, the film examines her parents’ adaptation to Africa, her own coming of age as the country was approaching independence, and issues of personal and national identity.

    Ms. Mann, who lives in Sag Harbor, recently returned to Kenya, where she taught documentary film development and production. “Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots” will have its African premiere in Nairobi in September.

    Tickets are $10, cash only, at the door. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Bay Street Theatre.