Beauty and the Dogs is one traumatic roller coaster ride. There’s no respite from the very first cut and once you’ve strapped in you have to watch until the end of the ride.
From: Tunisia, AfricaContinue reading “Beauty and the Dogs (Tunisia) – One Victim Against the Police”
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Next: Irreversible, The Insult, Dogville
Do you want to see one of Africa’s best films from the 20th Century? Set aside 55 minutes to watch Black Girl below (please comment if the video is not working). Don’t let film scholars be the only ones to have seen this incredible film as this should be seen by everyone.
Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl starts with a big passenger ship arriving at a port in France. A finely dressed black woman, Diouana, leaves the boat wondering if anyone will be there to pick her up. Sure enough a white man greets her, takes her bags, and drives her off. After a few jump cuts in the car ride (a style made famous in Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard) she arrives at a house on the French Riviera.
The opening suggests Diouana is here to meet her friends. Because of her nice dress and the white driver meeting her, it initially appears that she shares equal status with the white French people. However, as soon as she enters the apartment, it becomes clear that she does not share the same freedoms as her employers. She is kept in the apartment all day, every day to clean and cook and never ventures out because she never gets paid and is never introduced to anyone (which is always helpful when you don’t speak the language). As a result, she is almost a slave.
To get to know the film a little better, look out for the African mask. It first appears in the film when Diouana buys it from a small boy from her neighbourhood in Senegal. She then gifts it to her employer who first question it’s authenticity (‘it looks like the real thing’) and then hang it on one of their blank white walls in their apartment in France.
Firstly, the mask initially signifies equality between Diouana and her employer. The act of gifting implies that you share an equal standing with the person you give to. Initially, because of the gifting, Diouana is equal to her employer. However, when her employers dismiss the mask as a fake, they imply that Diouana cannot afford a real mask and therefore she is not on the same level as them.
Secondly, the mask is a metaphor for Diouana’s isolation in France. Like the mask hanging in the middle of a blank wall, she is alone and out of place in French society.
Lastly, the mask is a symbol of the misappropriation of African culture. In Africa the mask is alive as the young boy is shot playing with it and wearing it. However, in France, the mask is dead. In France, the mask has been reduced to an ‘exotic’ artifact which sits on a wall as a trophy of Diouana’s employer’s exoticism. It allows her employers to temporarily ‘play’ their ‘connection’ to African ‘exoticism’ without experiencing any of the discrimination they perpetrate. Just like a fancy dress that they can take off whenever they want.
When watching Black Girl you’ll notice that whilst Diouana doesn’t speak French, all her thoughts are narrated in French. Her consciousness has been taken over by a language that isn’t her own. She can’t physically speak French and therefore become equal to the French speakers in France, but she can think in French. In fact, French is the only language she actually thinks in via the narration.
This is symbolic of the legacy of French colonialism in Africa (in this case, Senegal). Although Senegal achieved it’s independence from France a few years before this film was made, by restricting Diouana’s consciousness to French Sembene emphasises the parasitic legacy of colonialism. The colonisers colonised Senegal and replaced it’s native culture with it’s own and disrupted Senegalese consciousness in the process.
There’s so much more to say! Simply put, Sembene’s Black Girl packs a lot into just under an hour. If it’s not being studied at schools across the world, it should be. Everyone needs to watch this film!
If you haven’t seen it, you’re in luck. Watch it here on YouTube!
This documentary film is on another level. You’ll rarely get this close to a life completely different to the one you’re used to. Not just because you probably have no idea about the lives of charcoal miners in DR Congo, but because you rarely get films that are this intimate. There are so many close ups and shots where Kabwita’s emotion is so clearly visible that you’ll feel like you’re there right beside him. The only problem is that you’ll feel even worse for not being able to help him up those hills.
Makala starts with Kabwita (our protagonist). The camera follows him through the bush. He’s carrying two axes on his shoulders. He’s looking for a good tree. After a minute or so, the perfect tree appears near the top of the shrub covered hill. After a quick prayer, Kabwita starts cutting down the tree.
Makala covers the whole process of making a living from charcoal. You’ll see Kabwita make the product (charcoal), transport it, and sell it. This is how he manages to live.
What’s amazing about the film is how intimate it is. The director, Emmanuel Gras, found Kabwita whilst working on his previous documentary (also set in DRC). Kabwita agreed to the film in return for help building the home he mentions in the film. This is how the director manages to get so many close-up shots of Kabwita documenting his trials and tribulations.
Because of the connection the close-ups establish between us (the audience) and Kabwita, there are many times when we want to reach out and help him. We can feel his struggle pushing the charcoal logs up hills and also his frustration when a lorry crashes into his livelihood. Of course, the director could help, but to do so would be to take away from our experience. It’s the director’s responsibility to direct the life of the charcoal maker. It’s our responsibility (the viewers) to be enlightened and be inspired to make a change.
Makala is a beautiful film. The cinematography at times is almost unbelievably real. A lot of the shots are so intimate and close that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that this is a documentary. We are so used to seeing unrealistic intimate shots in Hollywood films (close-ups of people kissing that you’d never see in real life) but this kind of intimacy is unusual in Documentary film. In Makala you get to experience the life of the charcoal maker, not just witness it.
Fragment 53 Film Difficulty Ranking: 3
War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
However, you can learn a lot from this documentary about the Liberian Civil War. It features interviews with the people responsible for killing hundreds if not thousands of people. You’ll also get to hear from all sides in the conflict and what they did in the role and what they think of the murders they committed now that the conflict is over. If you can’t imagine a time in which eating a heart is normal, I recommend you check out this film to find out.
Fragment 53 starts with the sound of a trumpet, a sound connected to war memorial services. The sound of the trumpet sets the tone of this war documentary, a tone that both recognises those lost, but also questions the nature of war. Alongside the trumpet we are shown a montage of statues and statuettes. Each one of them is a deity of war from various human cultures. War has been around for millennia. Is it a part of humanity or something we can stop?
Before, and also between the interviews of the war generals, the film hints at the surreal. We are shown shots of people working at roadside stalls, a cloud of fruit bats stripping the leaves off of a tree, and hills covered in rain forest and mist. Why are these images included? They are included as they show time passing. These mundane images are just as natural as war is to mankind. Bats will always strip the leaves off of trees, mist will always collect in the hills, and people will always be making a living. These things, just like war, will also continue into the foreseeable future.
The director’s also manipulate the interviews with the warlords and generals. Each interviewee is given the same introduction text and are all shot in close-up. But look out for how the director leaves them after the interview is complete. The first interviewee is rather vague about his opinion of war so his interview finishes with a blurred and dark image of him getting up to leave. The second interviewee is consistent in his views of war and his role and therefore the director ends his interview with a clear head shot. This is just one of the ways a director can influence our perception of interviewees in documentaries!
Fragment 53 is an intriguing look into the nature of war. Is it something that is a part of humanity or can it be eliminated? Hear from seven warlords/generals from Liberia. Their answers offer an insight into both the Liberian war and humanity as a whole.
For more documentaries on the nature of war, check out The Look of Silence and also Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun is an ode to the potential of Africa’s most oppressed. The main character, Sili, is a poor, disabled girl trying to make a living for herself and her blind grandmother. The odds are stacked against her – is there any hope? Find out by watching it here (Amazon).
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun starts with a chaotic scene on the streets of Dakar. A woman is accused of being a thief by a man in the street. The man runs up to her, grabs her bag from her, and rummages through the bag whilst the woman indignantly shouts that she’s innocent. A crowd of spectators gathers around them to watch and laugh at the fight. It’s an opening that quickly establishes a few things:
Introducing Sili. She’s not meant to succeed in life: she’s poor, disabled, and a young. On top of that, she has to look after her blind grandmother.
So, how does she succeed? What isn’t obvious from first impressions is her incredible spirit and perseverance. She sees a few boys selling newspapers in the street and sees an opportunity. So she walks up to the newspaper office and demands some newspapers to sell.
She gets 13 newspapers (a lucky number) to sell, but she also inherits a bunch of rival sellers (all boys) and some jealous cops eager to see her fail. Watch the film here (Amazon) to see what happens.
The Little Girl who Sold the Sun is a great film to watch to revive your faith in humanity. Sili’s spirit gives hope to the oppressed of the world. It’s well worth sparing 45 minutes of your time to meet her.
If you want to watch more films about street kids, check out these three films:
Or if you’re looking for more great contemporary West-African films, check out Wallay. You’ll meet a young kid from Paris who is taken on holiday to Burkina Faso to visit his family. What he doesn’t know is that his father intends to leave him there to work back the money he has stolen from him. It’s a great coming of age story.
