An archive of film and studio material in Bissau. On the verge of complete ruin, the footage testifies to the birth of Guinean cinema as part of the decolonising vision of Amílcar Cabral, the liberation leader who was assassinated in 1973. In collaboration with the Guinean filmmakers Sana na N’Hada and Flora Gomes, as well as many allies, Filipa César imagines a journey where in this fragile matter from the past operates as a visionary prism of shrapnel, with which to look through. Digitised in Berlin and screened at various locations – in what would come to resemble a transnational itinerant cinema – the archive convokes debates, storytelling and forecasts. From their screening in isolated villages in Guinea-Bissau to European capitals, the silent reels are now a place from which people might search for antidotes to a world in crisis.
Luta ca caba inda
Joshua Kwesi Aikins, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Sofia Bento, Suleimane Biai, Amílcar Cabral, Filipa César, Angela Davis, Adama Djansane, Famata Djassi, Anita Fernandez, Anselm Franke, Victor Freire Monteiro, Flora Gomes, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Louis Henderson, Tobias Hering, Grada Kilomba, Napuli Paul Lunga, Nuno da Luz, Lennart Malmer, Miriam Makeba, Olivier Marboeuf, Barbara Marcel, Chris Marker, Diana McCarty, Anna Canby Monk, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Jin Mustafa, Sana na n’Hada, Joel Pizzini, Carolina Rito, Ingela Romare, Serge Rompza, Aissatu Seidi, Gonçalo Sena, Ahmed Sékou Touré, Sónia Vaz Borges, Ala Younis.
Edited by Filipa César, Tobias Hering, Carolina Rito
Designed by Nuno da Luz, Serge Rompza, Gonçalo Sena
English
Softcover with poster
16 x 23 cm
424 pages, two colours
ISBN 978-3-943620-60-3
Euro 20,00
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Filipa César is an artist and filmmaker interested in the fictional aspects of the documentary praxis, the porous borders between cinema and its reception, and the politics and poetics inherent to moving image. Her work takes re-animation of media and its materiality as a means to elaborate on counter narratives to historical violence. Since 2011, César has been looking into the origins of cinema in Guinea-Bissau as part of the African Liberation Movement, its imaginaries and cognitive potencies, developing that research into the long term collective project Luta ca caba inda (the struggle is not over yet). She was a participant of the research projects Living Archive (2011–2013) and Visionary Archive (2013–2015) both organised by the Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin. Selected Film Festivals include Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen; Curtas Vila do Conde; Forum and Forum Expanded, Berlinale; IFFR, Rotterdam; Doc Lisboa; Torino Film Festival. Selected exhibitions: Manifesta 8, Cartagena 2010, HKW, Berlin 2011; Jeu de Paume, Paris 2012 and 2016; KW, Berlin 2013; NBK, Berlin 2014; Hordaland Art Center, Bergen 2014; SAAVY, Berlin 2014, Futura, Prague 2015; Khiasma, Paris 2015; Tensta konsthall, Spånga 2015; Mumok, Vienna 2016; Biennial Contour 8, Mechelen 2017.