New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
New York’s leading movie house for independent premieres and repertory programming
A nonprofit cinema since 1970
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| PREVIOUSLY AT FILM FORUM:
|
||
Africa’s foremost filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007) directed not only the first African feature film, but also the continent’s first color movie and the first shot in an indigenous language. Booted out of school in Senegal in his early teens, Sembène joined the Senegalese sharpshooters of the Free French for a four-year stint of fighting across Africa, France, and Germany. Demobilized, he joined a mammoth West African railroad strike, became a shipyard union activist in Marseilles, began to write and, by the early 60s, was recognized as a major African novelist. But pushing forty, and realizing that literature had a limited audience in Africa, he went back to (film) school, with his efforts winning awards at festivals around the world and bringing international attention to sub-Saharan African cinema. In his nine features he was not only a sharp critic of the internal problems of modern Africa, but also a passionate advocate of African pride and autonomy. Special thanks to Jonathan Howell and José Lopez, New Yorker Films; Mahen Bonetti, African Film Festival New York; Samba Gadjigo, Mount Holyoke College. |
||
NOVEMBER 30/DECEMBER 1 FRI/SAT XALA “Arguably Sembène’s masterpiece, weaves broad social criticism with intricate characterization.” For sale at Amazon: DECEMBER 2/3 SUN/MON (2005) In a remote Burkina Faso village, the impending mass ceremony of female circumcision goes wrong as this year’s class of young girls jump down wells or head for the home of Colle, herself a holdout against tradition, and her red thread of sanctuary, the Moolaadé. Intense treatment of a burning issue, but embedded within a three-dimensional treatment of village life — with a final outburst of courage coming from the least likely source. “One of the most ardently feminist films of recent years.” – Time Out New York DECEMBER 4 TUE CEDDO
“Sembène’s boldest political statement.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice DECEMBER 5/6 WED/THU LaNoire de... (1966) Diouana finds her pleasant babysitting chores for a French family in Dakar topped by an invitation to accompany them back to France; but once there, she finds she’s just “the black girl.” Based on an actual event, Sembène’s first feature combines the semi-doc technique of neo-realism with the simple, freewheeling style of the early New Wave in an unsparing attack on neo-colonial exploitation that put African cinema on the map. With Sembène himself as a schoolteacher. Plus Borom Sarret (1964), Sembène’s first film, a day in the life of a poor cart driver. “In both Borom Sarret, and the subsequent New Wave-influenced Black Girl, Sembene exhibits a sweeping view of post-colonial Senegal’s turbulent identity while maintaining keen narrative focus.” DECEMBER 7/8 FRI/SAT The Money Order (1968) Illiterate, unemployed, fiftyish Ibrahima Deng suddenly gets a windfall: a money order from his streetsweeper nephew in France for 20,000 francs (roughly $100). But as friends, relations, and debtors close in, he finds he can’t cash it without an identity card, which requires a proof of birth, which . . . Sembène’s first color film is a darkly humorous satire of Kafkaesque bureaucracy and corruption, as Deng concludes “honesty is a sin in this country.” “A richly comic and multi-textual first cousin to The Bicycle Thief.” – J. Hoberman DECEMBER 9/10 SUN/MON (1993) Bad enough that political activist Guelwaar (“the noble one”) has just died mysteriously, right after a mesmerizing opening speech — but where’s the body? Misidentified and buried in a Muslim cemetery? — but he was a Catholic! The solution is obvious — but the family’s disinterment plans rapidly derail as a bitingly comic firestorm of red tape, intrafamily disputes, and religious turf wars threaten to escalate into mayhem. “A masterful piece of filmmaking. Flashes the satirical teeth that most movie satires lack, and its appetite for destruction is so voracious that by the time the credits roll, it has managed to eviscerate the sanctity of the family, all major religions, and foreign aid dependency in Africa.” DECEMBER 11 TUE FAAT-KINÉ
“His most hopeful comedy, not so much freed from injustice and poverty as stubbornly locating joy amid the relentless disjunctions of modern Africa despite itself.” DECEMBER 12 WED CAMP DE THIAROYE
“the most formally rigorous of Sembène’s films.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice DECEMBER 13 THU God of Thunder (1971) “I dedicate this film to all militants of the African cause.” When, during WWII, French troops come to a Diola village to conscript the men and confiscate the rice, the women hide the crop and the elders consult with the gods, but events slowly escalate to tragedy. Based on an actual incident, filming on location in the village of Dimbering took about seven weeks spread over a year (Sembène had to work around the planting seasons) and entailed the director learning the Diola language as well. The film’s final horrific image was blacked out by the French. “The most experimental of Sembène’s films.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice |
The Curse (1974) Animal Farm in Africa, as fiftyish fat cat El Hadji Abdoukadr Beye enjoys a flourishing import business, two wives (traditional and Westernized), and a white Mercedes — and now he’s appointed to the Chamber of Commerce. Time to add that third wife; but on the wedding night he fails to rise to the occasion — could he be the victim of a xala? Savagely funny satire of the new post-independence ruling class that, despite government censorship, broke Senegalese box office records and hit its targets where they lived. 
MOOLAADÉ
(1977) In a 19th-century village, a princess is kidnapped, and a Muslim imam struggles against a Catholic priest for religious and political control, while the ceddo (“ched-doe”), or common people, try to hold on to their traditional ways. Banned in Senegal — ostensibly over the “European” spelling of the title, but more likely for its criticism of Islam, the country’s dominant religion — Sembène’s historical epic condenses two centuries of African history into a thriller of oppression and intolerance. 
BLACK GIRL & Borom Sarret
MANDABI
GUELWAAR
(2000) Amid a bustling modern Dakar, single mother Faat-Kiné is one joyously tough cookie, shrugging off her father’s attempt to immolate her after the birth of one out-of-wedlock child, and the father of the other scampering off with all her money. But now she’s the successful manager of a gas station and happy house and car owner. But as family and friends turn out for her childrens’ exam-passing party, guess who else shows up? 
(CO-DIRECTED BY THIERNO FATY SOW, 1987) “A magisterial critique of the colonial mentality” (J. Hoberman), based on an actual historical incident. In 1944, African infantrymen, back from slugging it out with the Nazis and liberating Paris, relax in a transit camp in Senegal; but as they gag on inedible food and wonder what happened to that back pay, they realize “transit” should read “prison”, and “war heroes” should read “uppity natives.” And then things get worse. Special Jury Prize, Venice.
EMITAI