The 1960s mark a revolutionary period in the history of African Cinema when newly liberated filmmakers were finally able to regain control of the narrative. This double-bill brings together two restored classics, Ferid Boughedir’s Camera d’Afrique (1983) and Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi (1968), for a historical visit of the post-colonial landscape.

With Camera d’Afrique, Tunisian director and film historian Boughedir builds an extremely valuable foundation for us to understand the region’s past and the art that defines the visionary works of African filmmakers. The documentary is a collection of 20 years worth of authentic, regional stories.

Sembène switched careers from writer to filmmaker in the 1960s in order to safeguard essential elements of the African identity and, amongst other things, to counter linguistic-imperialism. He makes films for, by and about Africans, focusing on neo-colonialism, corruption and women's rights in a liberated Senegal. His second feature film, Mandabi, is based on his novella Le Mandat (1966) and was also the first film ever produced in Wolof (or any African language), Sembène’s mother tongue.

An introduction by Mailijai Baldé accompanies this double bill event on September 8.

Mailijai Baldé is a video editor and graduate of the Master of Arts in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image from the University of Amsterdam. Her thesis focused on Ousmane Sembène and Thierno Faty Sow’sCamp De Thiaroye (1988), a film which was banned in France and Senegal due to its portrayal of a painful historical event still denied by France.