It’s about time! For the first time a film festival will offer truly decolonial programming. Exit films that maintain a corrupt worldview deadly power relations: racism, sexism and imperialismwhich is found even in the most innocuous (seemingly) of blockbusters or art films.
Decolonization and resistance
Not going to the Cannes Film Festival this year? Much better ! From from 14 to 25 Maythe Decolonial Film Festival immerses us in a stimulating cinephile adventure with a thirty films, broadcast in cinemas in Paris and the Paris region. Fiction, documentaries or short films: the form doesn’t matter. What matters is to show works that decenter us from the colonialist point of view of the world.
In a press release, the members of the DFF explain that they want it “allow a more holistic view of colonial history and how it continues to impact diasporas “. The cinema it works on our imagination and our way of thinking about the world and actingthis is why the FDF hopes:
propose food for thought for rethink our way of acting in society. The Decolonial Film Festival hopes to create an engaged and accessible space with a critical look at issues related to film colonizationFrom candies and of resistence.
For its first edition, the programming focuses on key themes of decolonial thought: resistance, diasporas, spirituality and heritage. A program that announces an exciting immersion In stories, universes and characters rarely seen elsewhere. Speaking of the DFF, the Guadeloupean filmmaker and artist Malaury Eloi Paisley specifies that the festival is far from these initiatives that exploit decolonialism, without however shows works truly revolutionized by this thought :
» The word decolonial is used in all sorts of ways, and some festivals create programs to clear their consciences, without really questioning the system. This festival exists because it was necessary.
Festival coordinator Sam Leter also adds that the DFF highlights many countries “because there are many regions of the world that unfortunately have been victims of this colonial history. »
A collective and free festival
The films screened in these 10 days were chosen by a programming committee made up of around ten people of feminist, queer and anti-racist associations and collectives in the cultural world. We find it there in particular queer media Manifesto XXIthe Palestinian Film Festival, Tzedek!collective of anti-racist and decolonial Jews in solidarity with the Palestinians, or the Cinewax platform, specialized in African cinema. Each screening will be followed by discussions with the public. Particular attention will be paid to young and school audiences, as the programmers explain:
We also know that decolonial discourses are often antagonized in the public sphere and that unfortunately they remain too niche. Our ambition is to go beyond academic and activist circles open the discussion to as many people as possible.
To ensure its freedom of programming, tone and expressionthe Decolonial Film Festival team has not associated itself with any private institution, thus favoring fund-raising. Its prize pool is open until May 9, 2024. The five people (including four women) who make up the festival team they will be paid at the same level, abolish every power relationship within the organization.
Dahomey by Mati Diop in exceptional preview
Good news, the festival will open with the highly anticipated Dahomeyby the Franco-Senegalese decolonial director Mati Diop.
This documentary to the limit fantastic cinema restitution follows in 2021 of 26 works from the kingdom of Dahomey, Benin. The latter had been sacked by French colonists in 1892. It was worth the direction the Golden Bear, supreme prize a Berlin Film Festival. The film will be broadcast Tuesday 14 May at Luxy in Ivry. This will be followed by a debate with the film’s producer Judith Lou-Lévy moderated by Elvire Duvelle-Charles, then an evening at the Hangar with Bamao Yendé of the Boukan Records label.
Among the other sessions we will find in particular an evening dedicated to Frantz Fanona screening of the Palestinian film Sea salt by Annemarie Jacir or also Thiaroye camp by the great Senegalese writer and director Ousmane Sembène.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
