Screen Notes:
Returning the Colonial Gaze

Discover a less well known world of cinema in these bold and ground-breaking films from French agitators and directors from newly independent countries in Francophone Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s, as we provide your Screen Notes for our May film season.

Still from 'Little by Little'

Still from 'Little by Little'

Throughout May, Returning the Colonial Gaze presents a season of films so rare that they are unlikely to return to a films screen in London for a long time.

We spoke to our cinema curator Tamara Anderson to guide you through the films that make up this innovative and provocative season, in our cinemas this month.

As Tamara says:

‘It’s a vicious circle: because they’re hard to source, these films have been virtually impossible for people to see. Collectively, cinemas and cinema-goers need to remake our reference points. This season is a part of that process.’

In this edition of 'Screen Notes', we introduce each of the films in the season and share our recommendations of what else you should be watching...

Soleil Ô

The Political Film

Still from 'Soleil O'

Still from 'Soleil O'

Why you should see this...

The most well-known film in the season. It’s the first film to be restored through Martin Scorsese’s African Film Heritage Project. And Med Hondo is a fierce filmmaker – willing to tear up the rule book like his French New Wave contemporaries, but without the pretension.

The story – about a Mauritanian accountant who moves to Paris to pursue his dreams but is met with issues frequently faced by migrants: menial jobs, poor living conditions, naked racism – is fast-paced, angry and action-packed.

Trivia

When Med Hondo moved to Paris he wanted to be an actor, but as a black African he found it impossible to work in the French theatre scene. Frustrated by the limited, stereotypical roles he was given, he founded his own theatre company and from there moved on to films.

Despite his extensive and important body of work, Med Hondo’s most-seen work is as a voiceover actor – he became the unofficial voice of Eddie Murphy in dubbed hits.

See this if you liked...

The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Dir: Gillo Pontecorvo

Curator Note

‘Hollywood bedazzled whole cultures – especially in Africa, where US imports flooded the market. It was precisely this cultural imperialism Med Hondo was so keen to resist.

Tamara Anderson, Barbican Cinema Curator

Afrique 50
To Be 20 in the Aurès

The Controversial Films

Filmmaker René Vautier

Filmmaker René Vautier

Why you should see this ...

These are the rarest films in the season. Afrique 50, France’s first anti-colonialist film, marked René Vautier as one of the few voices of dissent. He served a year’s jail time for its production, and only managed to save the film from the authorities by swapping reels at the last minute. Initially asked to create an educational film, but he went rogue – challenging its propagandistic aims with his biting voiceover.

Trivia

The self-described 'most censored director in France' obtained another nickname while filming Algérie en flammes, when he became ‘the man with the camera in his head’. During the shoot, the crew came under fire, a bullet tearing through Vautier’s camera and lodging shrapnel in his skull, where it remained until his death in 2015.

See this if you liked...

Far From Vietnam (1967)
Dir: Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch

Curator Note

‘René Vautier is the real rebel, forget Jean-Luc Godard. He lived it out. He went to jail. He was making activist documentaries to open French people’s eyes to the injustice of colonialism.'

Tamara Anderson, Barbican Cinema Curator

Afrique sur Seine
Little by Little

The Paris Films

Still from 'Afrique sur Seine'

Still from 'Afrique sur Seine'

Why you should see this...

Any Francophile will adore the beautiful shots of 1950s Paris in Afrique sur Seine. But with its focus on a community of Africans living in the capital, the film reveals a side of Paris rarely seen in the celebrated films of the French New Wave, and is quietly subversive for this reason.

In Jean Rouch’s Little by Little, several young men from Niamey in Niger visit Paris to undertake a study of the high-rise buildings and of the lives and bizarre customs of the local 'tribe' who inhabit them: Parisians. Part improvised fiction, part documentary - complete with vox-pop interviews - this is a light-hearted, sometimes hilarious, film with a serious point to make about European-African relations.

Trivia

Afrique sur Seine is sometimes cited in history as the first film directed by a black African and director Paulin Soumanou Vieyra was the first African to graduate from La Fémis (France’s world renowned film school).

See this if you liked…

Le Joli Mai (1963)
Dir: Chris Marker, Pierre Lhomme

Chronicle of a Summer (1961)
Dir: Jean Rouch

Curator Note

‘These images still carry a real charge. Here in the Quartier Latin – right at the heart of colonial power, in the shadow of the Pantheon where France buries her great poets – instead of Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy or Jean Seberg, here are African people strolling the streets.’

Tamara Anderson, Barbican Cinema Curator

Sih Moh, The Unlucky Man
The East Wind

The Moroccan Films

Still from 'The East Wind'

Still from 'The East Wind'

Why you should see this ...

Cited as one of Arab cinema's most ground-breaking films, The East Wind plunges us right into the heart of Tangiers, giving us the full flavour of the city's diversity and criss-crossing histories. Si Moh, meanwhile, describes a street-level view of immigration, leading us - with its hero, newly-arrived from Morocco - into Paris' grim outer suburbs.

Trivia

One of the founding figures of the New Arab Cinema, director Moumen Smihi strove to create a new cinematic language, untouched by Western models and authentically Moroccan. Through a structure of montage and opposition, digressive storytelling and jump-cuts, Smihi reveals a society and way of seeing torn by the contradictions of colonialism, religion, patriarchy, and resistance.

See this if you liked…

The Silences of the Palace (1994)
Dir: Moufida Tlatli

Black God, White Devil (1964)
Dir: Glauber Rocha

‘The East Wind is the work we've all been waiting for...’

Les Cahiers du Cinéma, 1976

An Adventurer's Homecoming
Touki Bouki

The Western Culture Films

Still from 'Touki Bouki'

Still from 'Touki Bouki'

Why you should see this ...

Born out of the idea of the brainwashing power of Western cinema, these fun-filled films toy with references and culture in a playful way. An Adventurer’s Homecoming transplants the all-American Western to the savannahs of Niger, while Touki Bouki is truly a 1960s counterculture film: the story of two young lovers hatching a plan to escape to Paris, it has it all – youthful rebellion, motorbikes, rock music, sex – all in Senegal.

Trivia

Touki Bouki is popular with people in important places. Not only did Martin Scorsese restore this through The World Cinema Project but Beyoncé and Jay-Z were inspired by the film’s iconic motorbike when announcing their upcoming tour.

See this if you liked...

Easy Rider (1969)
Dir: Dennis Hopper

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Dir: Arthur Penn

Curator Note

'Super refreshing and genuinely subversive. I’ve honestly not seen anything like it before'

Tamara Anderson, Barbican Cinema Curator

About
Returning the Colonial Gaze

With a focus on Francophone African and French cinema, this season presents work by bold filmmakers that reverses the ‘colonial gaze’ and interrogates the former occupying nation from new perspectives. This five-part season focuses on the relationship between French and Francophone African cinema and includes work by Moroccan, Mauritanian, Senegalese and Nigerien directors from the 50s through to the 70s.

Returning the Colonial Gaze takes place from 2–30 May.

Part of The Art of Change, our 2018 annual theme which explores how the arts respond to, reflect and potentially effect change in the social and political landscape.