The Pan-African Festival of Algiers, by William Klein
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Date
- 16:00 / Cancelled 16:00 / Sold out Saturday, 16:00
Location
Studio Centro de Arte Moderna GulbenkianPricing
10% – Cartão Gulbenkian and Cartão Gulbenkian Mais
We open ‘Songs, images, dances and sounds: acts for liberation’, a film programme in dialogue with the exhibition ‘Zineb Sedira. Standing Here Wonder Which Way to Go’, with the film around which the artist structured the exhibition.
In July 1969, the first Pan-African Cultural Festival was held in the Algerian capital, welcoming leaders and activists from liberation movements in Asia and Africa (from the MPLA to the PAIGC and the SWAPO), Black Panthers (Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, among others), and exiles from Brazil and Portugal such as Miguel Arraes, Manuel Alegre and Apolonio de Carvalho.
The festival was immortalised by filmmaker and photographer William Klein, assisted by several Franco-Algerian teams, and has been rediscovered over the last fifteen years. ‘Festival Panafricain d’Alger’ (1969) is now regarded as a precious document recording this event, which spanned several days and gave concrete expression to the ideas of Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral and Mário Pinto de Andrade on the role of culture in liberation struggles.
‘The Pan-African Festival of Algiers’, by William Klein
Algeria, France, Germany, 1969, 35mm transferred to digital format, 112’
Documentary
In French, with Portuguese and English subtitles
M/12
With the help of several teams of filmmakers and technicians, William Klein immortalised in images the First Pan-African Cultural Festival held in Algiers in July 1969. This unique documentary brings together sequences of agit-prop, parades, rehearsals and concerts, filmed directly with a nimble, moving, dancing camera. The film also gives voice to key figures in the liberation movements, including Amílcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto and Mário Pinto de Andrade. The film offers a deep dive into the effervescence of a festival united in the mobilisation of people, recalling the urgent need for decolonisation and solidarity across the entire continent.
Songs, images, dances and sounds: acts for liberation
In dialogue with the exhibition ‘Zineb Sedira. Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go’, this programme brings together a constellation of anti-colonial and anti-racist films, dealing with cultural and political resistance, and the inventiveness of the freedom fights. More info
Biographies
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Olivier Hadouchi
Olivier Hadouchi (Paris, 1972) is an independent film curator and researcher based in Paris. He studied Literature (Sorbonne) and Cinema (PhD, Sorbonne Nouvelle). He has published texts in academic journals such as ‘Third Text’ (on William Klein’s ‘The Pan-African Festival of Algiers’) and ‘CinémAction’ (on Latin American militant cinema or on certain Algerian and Lebanese films). He has curated film and video programmes for several venues, including film festivals (CorsicaDoc); Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (‘Tricontinental – Cinema, Utopia and Internationalism’, 2017); Jeu de Paume, Paris (‘Echoes of Algeria: Resistances’, in dialogue with the exhibition by Zineb Sedira, 2019); Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon; and Münster (in the context of an exhibition by Katia Kameli).
Image credit: © Cyril Caine
Programme
16:00 / Welcome
16:05 / Introduction
16:15 / ‘The Pan-African Festival of Algiers’ (1969), by William Klein
18:10 / Closing
Credits
Original Title
Festival panafricain d'Alger
Director
William Klein
Cinematography
William Klein
Pierre Lhomme
Sound
Dominique Hennequin
Antoine Bonfanti
Editing
Valérie Mayoux
Jacqueline Meppiel
Production
ONCIC (Office National pour le Commerce et l'Industrie Cinématographique)
Acknowledgment
Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema
Support
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.
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