A pioneer of African cinema and author of an uncompromising, strong and diverse oeuvre, we have come to know and appreciate Med Hondo over the decades as one who simultaneously gazes, belligerently and attentively, sharply, passionately and ironically, deep into the past, precisely at the present, but also far into the future. On the Run, Perspectives on the Cinema of Med Hondo, second in a series of three, features contributions that pay tribute to Med Hondo’s films. This publication examines Hondo’s work, which is often focused on the production of history and its practice from an African perspective, taking into account the temporality of the narratives in his work.
On the Run, Perspectives on the Cinema of Med Hondo is published in the frame of the film research, festival and exhibition project Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi—Run, comrade, run, the old world is behind you—The Cinema of Med Hondo by Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. (Berlin) in partnership with the late Med Hondo, MH Films (Montreuil) and silent green Kulturquartier (Berlin)
On the Run
Perspectives on the Cinema
of Med Hondo
Contributions by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Madeleine Bernstorff, Kudzanai Chiurai, Ute Fendler,
Abrie Fourie, June Givanni, Med Hondo, Boudjemaâ Karèche, Astrid Kusser Ferreira, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Shaheen Merali, Pascale Obolo, Abdoulaye Souleye, Françoise Vergès, Ibrahima Wane
1970—2018 Interviews with Med Hondo, the first volume in a three-part publication, brings together seventeen interviews conducted with Med Hondo over a period of almost half a century, most of the interviews originally published in French were translated into English. The publication originated in the project Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi—Run, comrade, run, the old world is behind you—The Cinema of Med Hondo. Read more
This publication consists of twenty-two essays and interviews in French and German, the texts are part of 1970—2018 Interviews with Med Hondo and On the Run and appears in this volume in their original language. This assemblage of voices portrays Med Hondo’s uncompromising and groundbreaking production. Read more
Med Hondo: En France, il faut que les hommes de progrès fassent quelque chose pour l’emploi, car qui ne mange pas ne va pas au cinéma. Ensuite, il faut lever les bras contre l’émondage qui est en train de se produire dans le domaine culturel. Il faut de tout pour faire un monde et donc que les minorités ne crèvent pas. Il faut aussi une critique de cinéma active, diversifiée et combattante, celle qui a permis à des gens comme Ousmane Sembène ou moi d’exister.
Brigitta Kuster: Med Hondo hat unablässig und in großer Konsequenz über die Bedeutung des Kinos for us, über die Möglichkeiten eines afrikanischen Kinos und über das, was es heißt, ein Filmemacher zu sein, nachgedacht und dies auch in Form von Texten und Manifesten getan, von denen wir drei erneut abdrucken. Sein Panafrikanismus hatte sich auch gegen Mikro-Nationalismen aufgerichtet und seine Biografie transzendierte ohnehin bereits jeglichen Nationalismus: „I had so many nationalities, I was Malian, I was Senegalese, I was Mauretanian, Moroccan, Algerian…“
Documentation of the exhibition Double Feature Picture Show by Theo Eshetu held at Archive in the frame of the project Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi—Run, comrade, run, the old world is behind you—The Cinema of Med Hondo. Exhibition dates: 20.8.2017−10.9.2017. More on Archive sites website.
→ The first issue of Archive Journal was conceived in the frame of the project Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi—Run, comrade, run, the old world is behind you—The Cinema of Med Hondo. The program traversed Med Hondo’s extraordinary body of work contributing in making his work more accessible for future generations. Download pdf