Hello, dear comrades! 

Our screening this month is a double feature honoring director Ousmane Sembène,  a revolutionary trailblazer considered the “father of African cinema”.

First is the medium length feature BLACK GIRL, the first Sub-Saharan African film to receive international attention. Diouana is a young Senegalese woman recruited by a wealthy tourist couple to work in the French Riviera. Arriving at her new workplace, Diouana realizes that she was misled to work as a servant and be treated like an object by her employers.

Then we’re screening the feature film MANDABI, the story of Ibrahima, an unemployed Senegalese man living with his two wives and kids. When his nephew sends him 25,000 francs as a money order from France, Ibrahima plans to share the money with his family. However, he must face numerous obstacles with Senegalese bureaucracy in trying to cash the money order. Can the arrival of capital ruin a man’s life? 

Both BLACK GIRL and MANDABI are harsh indictments of neocolonialism made only years after Senegal gained independence from France. 

"At a moral level, I don't think we have any lesson to learn from Europe.” 

– Ousmane Sembène