{"id":6812,"date":"2018-05-01T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T22:22:13","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:07:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T15:07:05","slug":"film-season-at-the-barbican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onecity.london\/film\/film-season-at-the-barbican\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Season at The Barbican"},"content":{"rendered":"
A new five-part film season at The Barbican<\/a><\/strong> starts this month, focusing on \u201cthe relationship between French and Francophone African cinema\u201d<\/strong>. Part of The Barbican\u2019s 2018 season The Art of Change<\/em>, Returning the Colonial Gaze<\/em><\/strong> will present audiences with bold postcolonial cinematography from the 50s through 70s<\/strong>, inclusive of work by \u201cMoroccan, Mauritanian, Senegalese and Nigerien directors\u201d.<\/p>\n Running from 2nd May until 30th May<\/strong>, the aim of these works was to literally mirror back and return the ‘colonial gaze’, presenting a new perspective, questioning the \u201cformer occupying nations\u201d<\/strong>, and further exploring \u201chow the arts respond to, reflect and potentially effect change in the social and political landscape\u201d<\/strong>. Challenging the Western viewpoint, these directorial voices were both purposefully disruptive and actively liberating; a powerful artistic reclamation of control<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Soleil O<\/strong><\/em> (18) opens the season on 2nd May<\/strong> and is unfortunately sold out, but it is this work by Med Hondo – \u201cone of the first films depicting the experience of migrating from the African Continent to France\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 that is most poignantly radical this season at The Barbican<\/a>. Acerbic, fast-paced, and influenced both by European avant-garde and West African oral traditions<\/strong>, Soleil O<\/em> remains a filmic \u201cpolitical awakening\u201d<\/strong>, portraying the experience of Mauritian-born accountant Jean and his dire immigrant experience in Paris.<\/p>\n Afrique 50 + To Be 20 in the Aur\u00e8s<\/strong><\/em> (18) is a Ren\u00e9 Vautier double-bill<\/strong>, the French activist filmmaker who described himself as \u201cthe most censored director in France\u201d<\/strong>. Screened on Cinema 3 on 9th May<\/strong>, Afrique 50<\/em> concerns itself with French colonial rule, while To Be 20 in Aur\u00e8s<\/strong> greatly criticises the Algerian war and the brainwashing of its conscripts into killing machines. Creator of over 150 movies, Vautier was regularly in trouble with the authorities<\/strong> over the content of his work, but Afrique 50<\/em> saw him imprisoned<\/strong>. Indeed, \u201ccensored for over 40 years\u201d, Afrique 50<\/em> is now considered France \u201cfirst anti-colonial film\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Afrique sur Seine + Little by Little<\/strong><\/em> (15) is another double-bill on 15th May<\/strong>, only these two films encapsulate precisely the sentiment of Returning the Colonial Gaze<\/em><\/strong>, depicting as they do black Africans \u2018discovering\u2019 France as a new country<\/strong> (\u2018touring\u2019 Paris; experiencing \u201cthe bizarre customs of that strange local tribe, Parisians\u201d). Paulin Soumanou Vieyra\u2019s 1955 Afrique sur Seine<\/em> was the \u201cfirst film made by Senegalese filmmakers\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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