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The Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image & The Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck in collaboration with the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive is holding a series of screenings and exhibition to be held at School of Arts, the Cinema and the Peltz Gallery, Gordon Square, to compliment the Roundtable Discussion being hosted at Birkbeck on the 18th October as part of Movements: The June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive
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Dates of the exhibition screenings and events run from 10th October until 7th November 2014 and are listed below.
To book for these screenings visit:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/arts/research/birkbeck-institute-for-the-moving-image/events
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[accordiongroup][accordion title=”Screenings & Events at Birckbeck” name=””]Birkbeck, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPD[/accordion][accordion title=”10th October: 6.00 pm – 8.00 pm” name=””]
Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, Angola/France/ Republic of Congo, 1972, 102 minutes)
June Givanni will present this award-winning film, which won the Golden Palm at the 1972 Carthage Film Festival. Based on a short novel by José Luandino Vieira, A Vida Verdadeira de Domingos Xavier/The Real Life of Domingos Xavier, the film follows the search by Xavier’s wife to find the Angolan rebel leader who is arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Portuguese. Through Maria’s perspective, the film gives tribute to the heroic actions of Xavier who refuses to betray his comrades-in-resistance, and to those who committed themselves to fight in the liberation struggle. The film ends with the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) attack on the notorious prison of Sambizanga, Luanda in 1961, which marked the beginning of co-ordinated armed uprising in the ensuing war for independence from Portuguese colonial rule.
[/accordion][accordion title=” 18 October 2014, 10 am -4.30 pm” name=””]
A day event at Birkbeck: Pan-African Cinema, Négritude and the Archive
A one-day international roundtable on the significance of the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive
Free, but booking essential: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/pan-african-cinema-negritude-and-the-archive
[/accordion][accordion title=”24th October: 6.00 pm – 8.00 pm” name=””]Cuba, An African Odyssey (Jihan El Tahri, France, 2007, 60 mins) This documentary, made by Egyptian filmmaker, Jihan El Tahri, using film archive material, tells the little-known story of Cuba’s support for the African liberation movements. Hakim Adi, author of Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919-1939, will respond to the film after the screening.[/accordion][accordion title=”7th November, 6.00.p.m – 8.00.p.m” name=””]
June Givanni presents the screening of two early films by award-winning Mauritanian filmmaker, Abderrahmane Sissako, whose most recent film Timbuktu (2014) is nominated for the official competition at the London Film Festival. Sissako has become known for his quiet feature films minimal in dialogue and pace, yet visually stunning and effective in its storytelling.
Octobre (Dir: Abderrahmane Sissoko, 1992, Mauritania/Russia, B&W, 37mins)
Shot in Moscow, Idrissa a young African man meets to say goodbye to Ira, his Russian girlfriend who is expecting a child. The ‘outcast’ lovers rehearse their endless farewells in a secret house in the centre of Moscow. Ira is worried, anxious and wanders the streets. The neighbours, who have rejected them, also turn up to the meeting, waiting on their doorstep. The city, that night, is an unfriendly one.
Rostov Luanda (Dir: Abderrahmane Sissako, 1997, Angola/France/German/Mauritania, colour, 58 mins)
Sissako visits a war-torn Angola after thirty years of war in search of a friend and thereby through interviews reflects on the lost utopias of a generation of Africans who experienced the liberation struggles. His camera is witness to the dislocation and despair of those he encounters living in Angola, however he also discovers the resilient spirit of Africa and optimism for its future in unexpected ways.
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There will be an accompanying exhibition from the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive in the Peltz gallery, Gordon Square.
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