Musician and filmmaker Baloji curates works exploring experimentation in contemporary African cinema.

Programmed by Belgian-Congolese filmmaker and musician Baloji, these short films use Moustapha Alassane’s newly restored Samba le Grande, the first African animation filmed entirely in colour, as a springboard to explore experimentation in contemporary African cinema.

Hallmarks of Alassane’s work can be found in the puppetry of Nelson Makengo and oral storytelling of Angèle Diabang Brener, culminating in Rwandan director Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo’s tender poetry and Baloji’s own mini-epic ZOMBIES, which respectively won two of the highest awards at last year’s International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Guest programmed by Baloji. 80’

Samba le Grande was restored in 2K in 2019 by New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, La Cinémathèque Afrique de l’Institut Français and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York.

Films:

SAMBA LE GRANDE
Moustapha Alassane 14 mins (NE, 1977)
Composed of drawings made directly on celluloid films and photographed puppets, Samba le Grand, the first African animation entirely in color, combines the rudimentary yet precise artistry of a puppet show with the elaborate drawings of a cartoon.

THÉATRE URBAIN
Nelson Makengo 13 mins (CD, 2017)
In her next film, Barbie would like to wear the belt that Kimpa Vita wore when she was burned in 1706. She travels to Kinshasa to get one. There, she rediscovers the story of Kimpa Vita, the Kongo Empire prophet that many have called the African Joan of Arc.

MY BELOVED CO-WIFE
Angèle Diabang 15 mins (SN, 2019)
Two new co-wives are alone in a house. They don’t want to talk to each other; at the same time, the voices of two other women tell us about their own experiences of polygamy. This film is an essay that mixes visual elements of fiction and documentary sound excerpts.

I GOT MY THINGS AND LEFT
Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo 23 mins (RW, 2018)
Eric is no more. His friends meet at his house to spend a night together. They reflect on life, find support, exchange anecdotes and bring memories of Eric to life. An intimate film about mourning and friendship.

ZOMBIES
Baloji 15 mins (CD, 2019)
A journey between hope and dystopia in a hallucinated Kinshasa, from the culture of the hair salon to futuristic solitary clubbing, from an urban parade to a dictator’s sense of glory to a modern western in the style of Takeshi Kitano.