An introduction to African Anticolonial Cinema with Awa Konate, Imruh Bakari and Tomisin Adepeju

Imruh Bakari (Speaker)

Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk

Description

On the Friday evening and Saturday we explore the theme of the weekender through African cinema. As well as screening three films from the continent – Hyenas, Mandabi and This is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection – we also will be hosting a panel with talented filmmaker Tomisin Adepeju, curator Awa Konatè of Culture Art Society which works to make African culture and arts accessible and Imruh Bakari who is a filmmaker, writer and former director of the Zanzibar Film Festival.
Hyenas and Mandabi explore the insidious nature of colonialism, it’s omnipresence and the ways it moves through capital. Hyenas captures this through the main protagonists brutal line “This world has made me a whore so I’ll turn this world into a whorehouse”. This ever mutating and ever-present colonialism turns into tragicomic absurdity in Mandabi as the main protagonist tries to cash a money order in a society reeling from French domination. These two films explore in their own unique ways the legacies of colonialism and the impact of modernity.
This is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection joins this programme with a simple but spellbinding story of a community pushed out by so called progress and development in Lesotho. Both Hyenas and It’s Not a Burial show communities in flux, values changing and being challenged and the brutal hand of capitalism and colonialism which leaves very little space for those to live outside of its grip. But again, a space is carved out for resistance in a heart stopping finale in ‘It’s Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection’. Although This is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection and Hyenas were made nearly three decades apart they work very well as companion pieces, centring Black women trying to make sense of the world they find themselves in, to find solace, revenge and resistance, in their own communities.

Period	12 Nov 2021
Event title	Other Cinemas November Weekender : Other Cinemas are pleased to announce our 2021 weekender of events which will be exploring the theme ‘colonialism, legacies and resistances’
Event type	Other
Location	London, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Documents & Links

Fatuma Khaireh, who hosted this panel, is a London based audio producer who is interested storytelling and cinema. Imruh Bakari is a filmmaker, writer, lecturer, and creative industries consultant. He has worked in the UK and a number of African countries in the areas of film production and film studies, culture and the creative industries, and currently teaches Film Studies at the University of Winchester. He was a co-founder of Ceddo, the film and video production and training organisation in London (1982-93), and Tanzania Screenwriters Forum (2001). From 1999-2004 he was Festival Director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF). His film and television productions include: African Tales - Short Film Series (2005/2008), Blue Notes and Exiled Voices (1991), The Mark of the Hand (1986), Riots and Rumours of Riots (1981). Awa Konaté is a London and Copenhagen-based independent curator, researcher, and founder of the research platform Culture Art Society (CAS). Her curatorial practice is centred on decolonial paradigms to create accessibility to and bring into focus the art histography, theory, and practices of cultural workers of African descent for public programming and exhibitions. Konaté specialises in photography, cinema, and other lens-based practices foregrounding archives as part of her curatorial methodology. She has worked with Serpentine Galleries, The Danish Film Institute, The Showroom, and her writings have been published in Third Text, Phaidon, Paletten Art Journal, and more. Tomisin Adepeju is a Nigerian-British filmmaker based in London, England. His multi award-winning shorts have been selected at over 150 international film festivals; including multiple Oscar-Qualifying festivals. His award-winning short, The Right Choice, had its World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and also screened as part of Sundance London. His most recent short, Appreciation, had it's North American Premiere at the Oscar- Qualifying Aspen Shortsfest and screened at BFI London Film Festival 2019. He is currently developing his debut feature. Other Cinemas is a project focused on the transformational power of film; whether that is showcasing the work of Black and non-white filmmakers; creating networks for Black and non-white creatives to work, learn and collaborate; or using film to document the stories of Black and non-white communities. Other Cinemas regularly hosts film screenings in ways and spaces that serve our communities and also runs an informal film school collective of young Black and non-white filmmakers which seeks to create a space for conversation and collaboration. Other Cinemas was set up by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, two filmmakers who saw the need for better ways to make and share films.