TRILOGIES: Intersections of culture, identity and education in cinema (Organized by André Elias Mazawi)
“Trilogies” is a CCIE initiative that brings together, during the Fall term of 2019 and the Winter term of 2020, three narrative films, each time by the same director, and focussing on the intersections of culture, politics, identity, and education. Each film in each trilogy stands complete and independent save in its relation to the general theme. The aim is it to offer the audience an opportunity to explore intersecting articulations of culture and identity and how they position themselves in relation to education.
Each screening is followed by a facilitated discussion which will examine intersections of culture, identity and education issues reflected in the screenings.
Fall 2019: Download full program
The first Trilogy includes three films by pioneer Senegalese filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty (Colobane, Senegal 1945 – Paris, France 1998). On Mambéty and his work, read here: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibril_Diop_Mambéty>.
- Friday, November 8, 6:00pm
- Touki Bouki (1973, 85 minutes)
- “Mory, a cowherd, and Anta, a university student, try to make money in order to go to Paris and leave their boring past behind.”
- Trailer: < https://youtu.be/xaWmfqrQjU4>
- Friday, November 22, 6:00pm
- Hyenas (1992, 110 minutes)
- “Dramaan is the most popular man in Colobane [Senegal], but when a woman from his past, now exorbitantly wealthy, returns to the town, things begin to change.”
- Trailer: < https://youtu.be/FqO9FFwIAGA>
- Friday, December 6, 6:00pm
- La petite vendeuse de soleil (The little girl selling the sun) (1999, 45 minutes).
- “A girl sells copies of Soleil, the government paper.”
- Trailer: < https://youtu.be/bf_k5D40dhw>
All three screenings are with subtitles.
Reading recommended towards the screenings and discussion:
Vlad Dima (2017). Sonic Space in Djibril Diop Mambety’s Films. Indiana: Indiana UP.
Description
The art of Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambety’s cinema lies in the tension created between the visual narrative and the aural narrative. His work has been considered hugely influential, and his films bridge Western practices of filmmaking and oral traditions from West Africa. Mambety’s film Touki Bouki is considered one of the foundational works of African cinema. Vlad Dima proposes a new reading of Mambety’s entire filmography from the perspective of sound. Following recent analytical patterns in film studies that challenge the primacy of the visual, Dima claims that Mambety uses voices, noise, and silence as narrative tools that generate their own stories and sonic spaces. By turning an ear to cinema, Dima pushes African aesthetics to the foreground of artistic creativity and focuses on the critical importance of sound in world cinema.
