Africans in Cannes

For all its cinema glitz, Cannes is in a part of France associated with the far right and very anti-immigrant, so it is a treat to see the region is hosting an African themed film festival.

Still from "Dégage."

The tenth edition of the International Pan-African film festival in Cannes, France happens between 17 and 21st April o the French on the French Riviera. Apart from a few African filmmakers having made a splash at the main festival in Cannes, very little is known about the city’s African character, mainly because this part of France is associated with the far right. It is hardly known as attractive to Africans or French people of African descent (Marseille to the west is more hospitable), so it is commendable that there’s an African-themed film festival hosted there.

If you’re lucky enough to make it there, here are five films on our radar. “Dialemi – Elle s’amuse” (My Love: She’s having fun) by Gabonese director Nadine Otsobogo is a bit of magic realism. A sculptor pounds away at a stone bust in his seaside home, where he lives alone. A mysterious woman appears, who the sculptor’s been waiting for. Excerpt above. Next, though “5 Egyptian Pounds” is Egyptian director Mohammed Adeeb’s first film, it was chosen to be screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. A middle aged woman is being followed around Cairo by a somber, mysterious younger man. The climax of the film is revealed through his significance to her.

A still from “Dialemi – Elle s’amuse”

Not much has been discussed about Rafael Padilla, a formerly enslaved Cuban man who became one of the first Black artists in France. Omar Sy is set to star as Padilla in an upcoming feature length film on his life. This documentary by directors Samia Chala and Thierry Leclère captures the stage production: “Chocolat – Clown Nègre” (“Chocolate, the black clown”). They hope to “interrogate our gaze, our confronting of the other, our construction of stereotypes and our discourse on xenophobia.” Here’s a video with the makers of the film (in French).

A touchy subject in my own family is that of blacks who fought on the of the Confederacy (that is to preserve slavery) in the mid-19th century United States (there are rumors that among our forbearers there was an ancestor who was a Black Confederate soldier by choice. In “Colored Confederates“, director Ken Wyatt is hoping to shed some light on this much-debated topic and whether that “choice” ever truly existed.

And lastly, Tunisian filmmaker Mohamed Zran exposes a complete timeline of the Arab Spring in his documentary, “Dégage,” purportedly wholly from the perspective of everyday citizens. The trailer introduces an oft not heard perspective, from a child.

Further Reading

L’impérialisme ne localise pas

En 1973, Josie Fanon a interviewé Oliver Tambo, alors président de l’ANC, à propos d’Israël et de l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud. Il est désormais disponible pour la première fois depuis sa publication originale.

On Safari

On our annual publishing break, we ask: if the opposite of “weird” is normal, what if normal is equally problematic?

Zau is a mirror

Inspired by a tapestry of Bantu folk stories, the video game ‘Tales of Kenzera: Zau’ is rich with mythology that many Africans know as our heritage.

Food wars

The theft dispute between Onezwa Mbola and Nara Smith reveals the consumerist undertones behind content for women in the online creative economy.

Not an obvious hero

In a new film, former UN-Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld is portrayed as a defender of a fledgling postcolonial state. But his role in the Congo Crisis is more complicated.

Not only kafala

Domestic workers in the Gulf typically face a double bind: as a foreign worker, you are governed by kafala laws, while as a female, you are governed by the male guardianship system.