Songs, images, dances and sounds: acts for liberation

Film cycle / 20 and 21 Sep

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.

Anchored in the cultural and political resistance movements of the liberation struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, this programme invites us to immerse ourselves in the dance of sounds and images, of dreams and imaginations, to the rhythm of the desires for change of those years, in order to better question our present and plan our future.

These are works open to plural memory and to the diverse cultural expressions of those struggles, which continue to surprise us and inspire new generations of artists, activists, and audiences.

The selection includes renowned films such as ‘The Battle of Algiers’, by Gillo Pontecorvo (1966) and ‘The Pan-African Festival of Algiers’, by William Klein (1969), as well as lesser-screened works such as ‘East Timor, Island of Fear, Island of Hope’, by Boubaker Adjali (1976) and the strikingly topical ‘Beirut, My City’, by Jocelyne Saab (1982).

The cycle also presents ‘Dreams Have No Titles’, the film created by Zineb Sedira for the Venice Biennale in 2022. In it, the artist re-enacts and revisits cult sequences from films co-produced between Algeria and other Mediterranean countries, thus renewing the enthusiasm around cinema and the festive spirit of the 1960s and 1970s. Traditional dances, poetry, tales, and songs were precious tools for resisting colonial domination, keeping African cultures and identities alive.

Curated by Olivier Hadouchi