Sambizanga
Still from Sambizanga, part of Afrika Eye 2022.

Women’s Stories from the Global South (& To Whom They Belong)

Cinema Rediscovered 2022

Season

Please note : this season finished in July 2022

Curatorial collaborators Mosa Mpetha (Black Cinema Project, Hyde Park Picture House), Darragh Amelia and Jesse Gerard (Ajabu Ajabu) present five recently digitised or restored works from the Global South that are written by and about women: Sambizanga (Angola), Maangamizi (Tanzania), Door to the Sky (Morocco), De Cierta Manera (Cuba) and Araya (Venezuela). Surrounding each film from this selection exists a uniquely challenging story of ownership and distribution, opening up discussion around the imbalance of power within film cultures perpetuated globally and locally — particularly imposed upon female storytellers and hindering open and inclusive access to their narratives.

The films will be introduced by practitioners actively working to challenge these barriers, including Black Cinema Project, Annouchka De Andrade, Ajabu Ajabu, Martin Mhando, Global Women’s Film Heritage, Twelve30 Collective, Dr. Jessica Gordon-Burroughs and Curator Lorena Pino — highlighting considerations and conversations around: moral approaches to institutional practice, legitimisation of informal film cultures, deconstructing film ownership, lifecycles of archival work, and the rights of audience.

Women's Stories from the Global South (& To Whom They Belong) is part of an ongoing interrogation by Ajabu Ajabu and Black Cinema Project that explores the multitudinous ways in which exhibition of classical cinema from the Global South has become a privileged experience. This work urges film practitioners to critique the global power imbalance of film cultures with an aim of encouraging not only return of archival cinema to the people, but open and inclusive reinterpretation of works according to their ever-evolving cultural significance.

Black Cinema Project is an evolving space set up by Mosa Mpetha and Samra Mayanja to bring people together with care, to meaningfully watch and discuss Black films and the landscape they are situated within.

Ajabu Ajabu is a collective of audio-visual practitioners based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania working on the preservation, production, and presentation of audio-visual art. Their work is centred around curatorial interrogations related to deconstructing bias across film cultures, platforming underrepresented narratives and modes of storytelling, and promoting amateur and experimental practice.


Previous screenings & events in this season

Araya

classified 15 S Women’s Stories from the Global South
Araya
Please note: This was screened in July 2022
Film

Araya is a poetic, visually arresting look at life on Venezuela’s Araya Peninsula, where generations of labourers have depended on mining the arid region’s salt pans for their livelihood.

De Cierta Manera

classified 15 S Women’s Stories from the Global South
De Cierta Manera
Please note: This was screened in July 2022
Film

Director Sara Gómez assesses the complexities of intersectional, marginalised lives in 1970's Cuba through a factual narrative that contextualises the relationship, the community, and the tensions of life in a new socialist society.

Sambizanga + Q&A with Annouchka De Andrade

classified 15 S Women’s Stories from the Global South
Sambizanga
Please note: This was screened in July 2022
Film

Join Annouchka De Andrade, Sarah Maldoror’s daughter, for a special screening of this unforgettable revolutionary film about a pivotal moment in Angola’s fight for freedom.

Maangamizi: The Ancient One

classified 15 S Women’s Stories from the Global South
Maangazimi: The Ancient One
Please note: This was screened in July 2022
Film

Two women forge a connection that breaches the confines of time, history, and faith. An essential work of Tanzanian cinema being returned to audiences openly and inclusively in honour of its 20th Anniversary by collective, Ajabu Ajabu.

Lunchtime Talk: Global Women’s Film Heritage Networking

Women’s Stories from the Global South
Global Women’s Film Heritage Networking Lunch
Please note: This event took place in July 2022
Talk

Join the team behind Global Women’s Film Heritage, a collective of researchers, archive practitioners and film exhibitors dedicated to making women and their films more visible for a networking lunch reflecting on the absences and presences of women's work in film archives.

A Door To The Sky

classified 15 S Women’s Stories from the Global South
A Door To The Sky
Please note: This was screened in July 2022
Film

Farida Benlyazid's poignant tribute to womanhood and spirituality is brought to life once again through the restoration efforts of the Transnational Moroccan Cinema Project from the University of Exeter.

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