African Women in Cinema Dossier by Beti Ellerson: a regular feature of Black Camera, An International Film Journal

 

African Women in Cinema Dossier by Beti Ellerson:

a regular feature of Black Camera, An International Film Journal 

Black Women at the Louvre, Practices of Worldmaking, and the Rehabilitation of Disfigured Images: Reflections on Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2026)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2026/06/black-women-at-louvre-alice-diop-fragments-for-venus.html

"Faire boutique": Reframing Safi Faye's Place in Petit à Petit, by Jean Rouch
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2026/01/black-camera-faire-boutique-reframing-safi-faye-petit-a-petit.html

Reading, Writing, Researching African Women in Cinema—Reflections on Sisters of the Screen-25 years and the African Women in Cinema Dossier 10 years onward by Beti Ellerson

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2025/06/black-camera-reading-writing-researching-african-women-in-cinema.html

 

Closeup: The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2024/06/closeup-africas-diasporas-of-women-black-camera.html

“I dared to make a film”: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Safi Faye

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/12/safi-faye-i-dared-to-make-a-film-tribute-to-her-life-and-work.html

 

Exploring African Women’s Cinematic Practice as Womanist Work (Spring 2023)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/03/exploring-african-womens-cinematic-practice-womanist-work.html

La noire de..., La passante and Many Others: Framing Cinematic Representations of Afro-Descendant Women, Identity, and Positionality in France (Fall 2022)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2022/08/black-camera-afro-women-france-beti-ellerson.html

African Women Professionals In Cinema: Manifestos, Communiqués, Declarations, Statements, Resolutions by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2021)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/06/black-camera-african-women-manifestos.html

 

Fifty Years of Women's Engagement at FESPACO. IN Part I: Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO): Formation, Evolution, Challenges (Fall 2020)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/05/black-camera-fespaco-fifty-years-of-womens-engagement.html.html

African Women, Cinema, and Leadership: Empowerment, Mentorship, and Role-Modeling (Spring 2020)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/06/black-camera-african-women-cinema-and.html

African Women on the Film Festival Landscape: Organizing, Showcasing, Promoting, Networking (with Falila Gbadamassi) Fall 2019

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/01/black-camera-african-women-on-film.html

Safi Faye's Mossane: A Song to Women, to Beauty, to Africa (Spring 2019)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/black-camera-safi-fayes-mossane-song-to.html

African Women of the Screen as Cultural Producers: An Overview by Country  (Fall 2018) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/11/black-camera-african-women-of-screen-as.html

On-screen Narratives, Off-screen Lives: African Women Inscribing the Self (Spring 2018) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/05/black-camera-on-screen-narratives-off.html

Traveling Gazes: Glocal Imaginaries in the Transcontinental, Transnational, Exilic, Migration, and Diasporic Cinematic Experiences of African Women (Spring 2017) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/05/black-camera-spring-2017-beti-ellerson.html

African Women and the Documentary: Storytelling, Visualizing History, from the Personal to the Political (Fall, 2016) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/10/african-women-and-documentary.html

Teaching African Women in Cinema, Part Two (Spring 2016) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/06/teaching-african-women-in-cinema-part.html

Teaching African Women in Cinema, Part One (Fall 2015) https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/02/teaching-african-women-in-cinema-part.html

Pocas Pascoal : Internazionale di arene decoloniali - 8 settembre

Pocas Pascoal

Internazionale di arene decoloniali

8 settembre

Time to Change (documentario breve, Angola/Portogallo, 2024, 7’

Por aqui tudo bem (fiction/drama, Portogallo, 2011, 94’

Testo & immagine:

https://unponteper.it/it/arene-decoloniali-programma-2026/

Regista, direttrice della fotografia e sceneggiatrice, Pocas Pascoal è nata in Angola e ha studiato cinema a Parigi.

Il suo lavoro attraversa i temi dell’esilio, della memoria collettiva e delle conseguenze della guerra e della colonizzazione. Ha realizzato documentari e cortometraggi e partecipato a numerose esposizioni internazionali.

Con il suo film Alda e Maria, acclamato dalla critica, ha ricevuto diversi riconoscimenti internazionali. Nel 2024 ha inoltre partecipato al progetto collettivo GREENHOUSE, presentato alla Biennale di Venezia.

Black Gaze – Mostra de Cinema Negro em Portugal | Showcase of Black Cinema in Portugal - 08, 09, 15, 16 nov

Black Gaze – Mostra de Cinema Negro em Portugal | Showcase of Black Cinema in Portugal

08, 09, 15, 16 nov

 

https://gulbenkian.pt/cam/en/black-gaze-showcase-of-black-cinema-in-portugal/

 

 

Image: «Latitude Fénix» (2024) © KUSSA productions / On Time Entertainment / Welket Bungué 

 

Construídas em torno dos temas Entre-Lugar, Memória e Ancestralidade, Ecologia e Feminismo, Antirracismo – Família e Rua, as sessões contam com a presença de cineastas para conversar com o público sobre as obras apresentadas.

 

A seleção inclui obras de Denise Fernandes, Fábio Silva, Falcão Nhaga, Lolo Arziki, Melissa Rodrigues, Mónica de Miranda, Pocas Pascoal, Raquel Lima, Silas Tiny, Vanessa Fernandes e Welket Bungué.

 

O título deste ciclo, que tem curadoria de Kitty Furtado, parte da ideia de que to gaze não é o mesmo que olhar (to look), implica uma relação de poder assimétrico entre quem olha e quem é objeto desse olhar. É possível adquirir um passe diário ou um passe geral, para além do bilhete individual de cada sessão.

 

***

 

This exhibition aims to showcase the cinema of afrodescendant people produced in Portugal in recent decades and to contribute to the emerging critical discourse. Structured around the themes ‘In-between places’, ‘Memory and Ancestry’, ‘Ecology and Feminism’, and ‘Anti-racism – family and neighborhood’, the sessions are followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and audience.

 

The selection includes films by Denise Fernandes, Fábio Silva, Falcão Nhaga, Lolo Arziki, Melissa Rodrigues, Mónica de Miranda, Pocas Pascoal, Raquel Lima, Silas Tiny, Vanessa Fernandes and Welket Bungué.

 

The title of this cycle, Black Gaze, organized by Kitty Furtado, has as a point of departure, the idea that “to gaze” is not the same as looking (to look), hence, it implies an asymmetrical power relationship between the one who looks and the one who is the object of this gaze.

Non Noto, il documentario di Tezeta Abraham, che indaga la storia coloniale italiana e le sue eredità - Intervista di Fabiola Celenza

Non Noto, il documentario di Tezeta Abraham, che indaga la storia coloniale italiana e le sue eredità - Intervista di Fabiola Celenza

 

Testo & immagine: https://www.africarivista.it/nn-non-noto-intervista-tezeta-abraham/320553/ 

 

Raccontando sia il dramma dei figli non riconosciuti nel Corno d’Africa sia le trafile burocratiche odierne delle seconde generazioni, il documentario NN – Non Noto dimostra come gli ostacoli alla cittadinanza affondino le proprie radici nelle omissioni e nei pregiudizi del passato. Ne abbiamo parlato con la regista Tezeta Abraham in vista della proiezione del film durante il festival romano Arene Decoloniali

 

Il documentario “NN – Non noto” sarà proiettato giovedì 10 settembre durante il Festival Arene Decoloniali,organizzato a Roma da Un Ponte Per, e di cui Africa Rivista è media partner

.

Alice Diop, the 2026–27 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at UC Berkeley

Alice Diop, the 2026–27 Avenali Chair in the Humanities

at UC Berkeley

https://villa-albertine.org/va/events/alice-diop-in-person-bampfa/

Image source: villa-albertine.org

Alice Diop in person at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive for a retrospective of her work from 3-18 September

Program: screenings and conversations 

Saint Omer,  2022  - 3 September  (in conversation: Alice Diop and Debarati Sanyal)

We,  2021 
- 4 September (in conversation: Alice Diop and Maya Sidhu)

On Call,  2016 
- 10 September (in conversation: Alice Diop and Iggy Cortez)

Danton’s Death,  2011 and Towards Tenderness, 2016 - 13 September (in conversation: Alice Diop and Damon Young)

Senegalese Meet Scene-Gallic,  2007, and Fragments for Venus, 2025 
- 18 September (film introduction by Maya Sidhu)

A Poet with a Camera: The Cinema of Sarah Maldoror - BFI Southbank - 2-30 septembre 2026

A Poet with a Camera: The Cinema of Sarah Maldoror

BFI Southbank

2-30 septembre 2026

Text and Image : BFI Southbank

Description
This exploration of an intimate and poetic body of work highlights a filmmaker whom history almost erased. Her highly subversive, revolutionary and very African cinema also reveals her love for the arts and commitment to exist as a woman and filmmaker. It also highlights her constant and unwavering support for her partner – her compagnon de route – the Angolan poet and politician Mário de Andrade. 

Season programme (Annouchka de Andrade, season curator)

Season Introduction: Poetry in My Soul

Sarah Maldoror Herself + discussion with Annouchka de Andrade

Sambizanga + intro (Annouchka de Andrade and Henda Ducados)

Sambizanga + pre-recorded Q&A with Sarah Maldoror

Sarah Maldoror’s classic feature reveals the human cost of colonial oppression during Angola’s struggle for independence.

Rebellion

Three films by Sarah Maldoror about Aimé Césaire.

Passing through Paris

All to Mexico!

Poetry Is Political: portraits of René Depestre, Ana Mercedes Hoyos and imé Césaire.

When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream

From Saint-Denis to Algiers

French-Algerian history is explored in these stories of exile, belonging and memory.

Fiesta - Sarah Maldoror’s unofficial carnival trilogy

All Is Politics

Key Scholar Lecture: “The time it takes to march”: Pan-Africanism and beauty in Sarah Maldoror’s unapologetic cinema with Janaína Oliveira  

The African Women in Cinema Blog commemorates International Day for People of African Descent featuring "The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry"

United Nations

International Day for People of African Descent

in celebration of the extraordinary contributions of the African diaspora around the world

 

In honor of the United Nations commemoration of people of African descent, the African Women in Cinema Blog features the Closeup in Black Camera: An International Film Journal 15. 2 (Spring 2024): The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry curated by Beti Ellerson

 

Excerpted from introduction:  

 

The objectives of the Close-Up, The Africas/ Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry: to recover, to chronicle, to affirm, to reimagine even, African/Diasporan women’s cinematic world-making, indeed self-making—envisioning the manners in which they devise, create, make, a space, a universe, a domain, a world; within which they may tell/relate their stories—storytelling as a project of world-making through cinema.

The Close-Up asks questions regarding the tenets of an African/Diasporan cinematic practice/tradition shaped by women: its beginnings, the forces that compelled, facilitated and informed it, the requisite approaches needed to formulate it, and the propositions on which to explore its cultural, political, and social manifestations.

The title “The Africas/Diasporas of Women in the Evolution of a TransAfrican Film Practice and Critical Inquiry” calls attention to the multiplicity of locations, providing a place for the explication of African/diasporic histories (historical and new Diasporas), as well as an elaboration of the peregrinations as well as the negotiation of hybrid, indeed symbiotic, identities of so many of these women.

The Close-Up comes together under myriad themes, in order to draw from the intersectional, multifarious aspects of women’s transAfrican film practice, histories and critical inquiry.

The Close-Up is in the memory of Sarah Maldoror and Safi Faye.

 

Read the introduction in its entirety: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2024/06/closeup-africas-diasporas-of-women-black-camera.html

The African Women in Cinema Blog commemorates International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances : Annette Kouamba Matondo - Le devoir de mémoire et l’affaire des disparus du Beach

On International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances the African Women in Cinema Blog features Annette Kouamba Matondo : The Duty of Memory and the Case of the Beach Disappearances

 

Following are excerpts from the 20 June 2012 interview with Annette Kouamba Matondo by Beti Ellerson.

In your film, One does not forget one forgives, you begin by reading out loud to Sylvie Diclo Pomos, and of course, to the viewers, your intentions for making the film: to recall the Case of the Beach Disappearances in order to remember, because too often there is a tendency to forget. Sylvie Diclo Pomo’s play “Janus’s Madness” is the point of departure of the story and it is through her work and experiences that the film unfolds. At the end, the film plays a cathartic role for you. Why did you choose to focus on the Case of the Beach Disappearances and to tell the story in this way?

Initially it was to be a portrait of Sylvie the artist, and then the film changed dramatically. It was not intentional. At a point during the shooting I began to ask myself questions and I found the answer at the end of the film. I had not mourned my sister’s death. The Case of the Beach Disappearances is a tragedy that touched a lot of Congolese. Many have not yet mourned and even continue to hope for the return of their family members, others are completely devastated. But the most depressing of all is that there was a trial, and all of the accused were acquitted. Even now I cannot really say why I cried at that moment in the film. There were emotions that cannot be controlled. I thought I had forgotten, but no, there, all the past that I had buried away somewhere in my mind resurfaced. At first I did not want to put this part of my life in the documentary, it is a private part of life. But this moment expresses the real question of forgetting. Can one really forget or does one pretend to forget, thus the title, One does not forget one forgives. In this sense I fully agree with Sylvie, that it is necessary to talk, to question, in order not to make the same mistakes. One has the impression to have mourned but there are certain ghosts that are difficult to eliminate. The only therapy that remains is dialogue, sharing those fears, those problems. I think that it is a first step of a long therapy, and I am on the right path to healing. My narrative at the start of each sequence is for me, a travel diary, in order to seize those intense moments and share them with everyone.

What is the history of the Case of the Beach Disappearances and its impact on Congolese society?

In 1999, in an effort towards peace after the civil war, president Denis Sassou Nguesso announced a national reconciliation, signing accords with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the UNHCR [The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] for the return of refugees that had fled the civil war to take refuge in Kinshasa. Under the supervision of the UNHCR, the first return of families (adults, women and children) took place via the “Beach crossing” (the river ferry between Brazzaville and Kinshasa), which involved around 1,500 people. According to sources, the moment of their return to Brazzaville these people were arrested and dispatched by convoy to camps or to the presidential quarters. From that moment all traces of them have been lost. Some rumours tell of people being piled up alive in containers that were then sealed and dumped into the river. The number of those who disappeared has been estimated at more than 300 people. After the tragedy, there was a trial that did not establish any facts and to the disappointment of the families, the presumed guilty were acquitted, while other families received compensation. At the present the families are still unaware of what really happened during the crossing and continue to wait for justice: God’s. 

Read the entire interview: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/06/annette-kouamba-matondo-le-devoir-de.html

Arene Decoloniali Femminismi Edizione II - 7 - 13 settembre 2026 - Roma

ARENE DECOLONIALI FEMMINISMI Edizione II

7 - 13 settembre 2026

Roma

https://unponteper.it/it/arene-decoloniali/

Scopri il programma completo su:

https://unponteper.it/it/arene-decoloniali-programma-2026/

Torna a Roma ARENE DECOLONIALI, il festival di Un Ponte Per dedicato quest'anno ai femminismi dei contesti coloniali e postcoloniali.

Attraverso film, documentari e incontri pubblici, il festival propone uno spazio di confronto sui legami tra genere, colonialismo, razzismo, memoria e resistenza, dando voce a prospettive spesso escluse dal dibattito dominante.

Storie, esperienze e pratiche di autodeterminazione provenienti da Africa, Asia Sud-Occidentale, America Latina e diaspore saranno al centro di una settimana di cinema, cultura e dialogo.

ARENE DECOLONIALI è realizzato con il patrocinio del Municipio VIII del Comune di Roma e AAMOD, con la Media Partnership di Africa Rivista, Arte Settima e Sentieri Selvaggi, gemellato quest'anno anche con il Decolonial Film Festival

Il festival, promosso da Roma Capitale - Assessorato alla Cultura è vincitore dell'Avviso Pubblico Roma Creativa 365. Cultura tutto l'anno in collaborazione con Zètema Progetto Cultura

Netflix: The Polygamist created by Sue Nyathi

 

Netflix:

The Polygamist created by Sue Nyathi

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-polygamist-release-date-news

Description

Jonasi Gomora (Sdumo Mtshali) is dead. On the outside, the South African business tycoon’s funeral seems like a full house of devoted mourners, including his wife of more than 20 years, social media influencer Joyce (Gugu Gumede), and their adult children Mpume (Noluthando Shabalala) and Menzi (Wonder Ndlovu). But what the bereaved audience doesn’t know is that, despite Joyce’s picture-perfect presentation as a grieving widow, she hates her dead husband with a fervor. It’s easy to see why, since Joyce isn’t the only woman who has lost Jonasi — there are also three notable ladies in attendance wearing their mourning blacks. Based on a Zimbabwean novel of the same name by Sue Nyathi, showrunner Akin Omotoso (The Brave Ones) adapted the story of how one man’s greed and lust led to his downfall — all thanks to a cunning wife who will stop at nothing to save her family’s reputation. 

Source, Text and Image: Netflix

La fondatrice, de Warkhatv, Fatou Warkha Sambe : « Ré-imaginer les savoirs et pratiques féministes à partir du Sénégal »

ANNONCE 

(texte du Warkhatv Facebook)

Du 17 au 21 août 2026, Warkhatv sera présente à l’Université Laval, à Québec, à l’occasion du 9ᵉ Congrès international des recherches féministes dans la francophonie (CIRFF), qui célèbre cette année ses 30 ans autour du thème « (Ré)imaginer les féminismes : francophonie, luttes et savoirs féministes ».

 La fondatrice, de Warkhatv, Fatou Warkha Sambe, prendra part à la table ronde « Ré-imaginer les savoirs et pratiques féministes à partir du Sénégal », aux côtés d’autres actrices de la pensée, de la création et de l’action féministes sénégalaises.

La table ronde part d’une conviction que nous portons également à WarkhaTV : les savoirs féministes ne se produisent pas uniquement dans les universités. Ils se construisent aussi dans nos mouvements, nos médias, nos espaces militants et communautaires, nos créations, nos récits, nos langues et nos expériences.

La présence de WarkhaTV dans cette réflexion, comme plateforme audiovisuelle féministe de création et de diffusion des connaissances à partir du Sénégal, est donc particulièrement importante pour nous.

Pendant le CIRFF, WarkhaTV sera aussi au cœur du Congrès pour aller à la rencontre de féministes venues de différents territoires, écouter leurs réflexions et partager avec vous des rencontres, interviews, débats, savoirs, luttes et solidarités.

TV5 Monde Info : "Cotton Queen" de Suzannah Mirghani

TV5 Monde Info : "Cotton Queen" de Suzannah Mirghani

06 août 2026 "Cotton Queen" est le premier long métrage de la réalisatrice russo-soudanaise Suzannah Mirghani. À travers le destin d’une adolescente cueilleuse de coton, le film raconte le passage à l’âge adulte, mais aussi l'héritage familial et le désir de liberté. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1cZoaw1K9o

Recent Films. The Executed by Vigil Chimé

The Executed by Vigil Chimé
Short Film from Vigil Chime Films

A non-verbal, special-needs boy struggles to communicate to his beloved family the danger to all their lives when the chair was brought into the house.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVmkNUqm6gc

Ẅ XOOL Festival 2026: Ciné-Festival Afro-féministe

Ẅ XOOL Festival 2026: Ciné-Festival Afro-féministe

Ẅ XOOL c'est d'abord un festival de films, l'unique en Europe qui programme exclusivement des réalisatrices femmes Noires (trans et cis-genres) et réalisateurices non- binaires Noires de toute la diaspora et du Continent. Il a lieu tous les deux ans depuis 2020, organisé de manière bénévole par des femmes et personnes non- binaires Noires. Le festival propose des places toujours en dessous de 10 euros la journée, 5 euros les demi- journées (loin des tarifs habituels de festivals) avec des places solidaires à prix libre. Il a aussi toujours lieu en banlieue parisienne, là où vit l'une des populations les plus paupérisées, ainsi que la majorité des personnes afro-descendantes en France hexagonale.

(Source - texte et image : Ẅ XOOL Facebook Page)

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Pan-African Women’s Day

 The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Pan-African Women’s Day

Image: African Union

Statement from the African Union: 

The day July 31, marks the founding of the Pan-African Women's Organization in 1962, when women from across Africa came together in solidarity to support the continent's liberation and advance women's rights. That legacy continues through the leadership of women across Africa and the African diaspora who are strengthening communities, contributing to public life, and helping address the challenges that matter most to citizens.  

This year, the African Union marks Pan-African Women’s Day under the theme: "Women's Action for Safe Sanitation, Peaceful Communities, and Better Livelihoods."

The Restored "Kaddu Beykat" by Safi Faye premieres at the 79th Locarno Film Festival

The Restored Kaddu Beykat by Safi Faye premieres at the 79th Locarno Film Festival

 

Image: © Arsenal Filminstitut e.V. Locarnofestival.ch
 

Read the article by Srikanth Srinivasan, "It Takes a Village: On the Restored Kaddu Beykat by Senegalese Pioneer Safi Faye" at https://www.locarnofestival.ch/news/2026/pardo/it-takes-a-village-on-the-restored-kaddu-beykat-by-senegalese-pioneer-safi-faye.html
 

Kaddu Beykat (Letter from My Village) was restored by Cinegrell, in partnership with Locarno Heritage. The restoration will premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival.

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates the Nations Unies | United Nations Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine | International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent

Nations Unies | United Nations :

Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine 

 International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent 

 

Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine

Les femmes et les filles d'ascendance africaine continuent de faire face à de multiples formes de discrimination.

Accès limité à l'éducation et aux soins de santé de qualité, sous-représentation dans les sphères politiques et professionnelles : elles se heurtent trop souvent à des obstacles systémiques qui compromettent leur bien-être et fragilisent leurs droits.

Malgré ces défis, elles continuent de s'élever : à la tête de mouvements sociaux, brillant dans leurs études et leur carrière, luttant pour la justice, brisant les cycles de pauvreté et d'exclusion.

 

International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent 

Women and girls of African descent continue to face multiple forms of barriers and discriminations.

Despite these challenges, they continue to rise—leading movements, excelling in academics and careers, advocating for justice, and breaking generational cycles of poverty and exclusion.

Greater efforts are needed to support and empower them.

International Widows Day | Journée internationale des veuves (23/06) : Mary-Noël Niba - Le dos de la veuve | The back of the Widow

The commemoration of the International Day of the Widow, 23 June | La célébration de Journée internationale des veuves, 23 juin

[English]

The commemoration of the International Day of the Widow, 23 June, provides the opportunity to highlight the numerous difficulties that women endure at the death of their husbands. Plunged into a state of mourning, widows sometimes find themselves without the protection of a social net for the first time since their marriage. Too often they are deprived of their inheritance, property rights, access to employment and even the means to ensure their survival.

[Français]

La célébration de Journée internationale des veuves, le 23 juin, offre l’occasion d’attirer l’attention sur les nombreuses difficultés que connaissent les femmes lorsque leur mari meurt.  Plongées dans le chagrin, les veuves se retrouvent parfois sans filet de protection sociale pour la première fois depuis leur mariage.  Trop souvent, elles sont privées du droit d’hériter, de droits fonciers, de l’accès à l’emploi et même des moyens d’assurer leur survie.

Source: Critique de/by Maturin Petsoko. Journal du Cameroun

[English]
When asked what was the underlying motivation that led her to make such a work, Mary-Noël Niba responded: I want to be the voice of the voiceless. This is the feeling that drove me when I decided to make this documentary; to discover the basis of the tradition of succession among the Koms and their impact on society. Based on a woman's story, I wanted to put under the spotlight, the courage of some of the victims of a form of enslavement of women in the name of tradition; to highlight the women who decided to rebel despite the threats, and to raise their heads as they face the magnitude of the phenomenon

A la question de savoir quelles sont les motivations profondes qui ont poussé l’auteure à réaliser une telle œuvre, Mary-Noël NIBA déclare : Je voudrais être la voix des sans voix. C’est le sentiment qui m’anime lorsque je me décide à faire ce documentaire qui a pour but de faire découvrir les fondements de la tradition de succession chez les Koms et leurs conséquences sur la société. A travers l’histoire d’une femme, je voudrais mettre sous les feux des projecteurs, le courage de quelques victimes d’une forme d’asservissement de la femme au nom de la tradition, des femmes qui ont décidé de se révolter malgré les menaces, de lever la tête devant l’ampleur du phénomène.

LINK | LIEN

"Le dos de la veuve" (the back of the widow) by Cameroonian Mary-Noël Niba, critique by Maturin Petsoko

http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/05/le-dos-de-la-veuve-back-of-widow.html

«Le dos de la veuve», le documentaire engagé de la camerounaise Mary-Noël NIBA, critique par Maturin Petsoko

http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/05/le-dos-de-la-veuve-le-documentaire.html

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Refugee Day

 

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on 20 June and honours the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. 

Image: switchboardta.org

Focus on/sur “On Call” | “La Permanence” by/par  Alice Diop

[English]

This is a film about the pain of exile, but it is told through the contemplation of the faces of these men. What grabbed me when I started working on this subject were the images of these undifferentiated and anonymous masses who flock to our doors. While initially, this image was not negative in its intent, it produced something that can be experienced as threatening. For me it was important to put faces, to put names and specific stories on what is often treated as an all-encompassing problem.

[Français]

C’est un film qui raconte la douleur de l’exil, mais qui la raconte au travers de la contemplation du visage de ses hommes. Ce qui m’avait saisi quand j’avais commencé à travailler sur ce sujet, c’était les images de ces masses indifférenciées et anonymes qui affluaient à nos portes. Même si, à la base, cette image-là n’était pas négative dans son intention, elle produisait quelque chose qui peut être vécu comme menaçant. Pour moi, il était important d’aller mettre des visages, d’aller mettre des noms et des histoires singulières sur ce qui est très souvent traité comme étant un problème globalisant.

LINK | LIENS

Alice Diop : Addressing political issues through sensitivity and empathy | Les questions politiques par le biais de la sensibilité et de l’empathie

BLACK CAMERA - Black Women at the Louvre, Practices of Worldmaking, and the Rehabilitation of Disfigured Images: Reflections on Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2026) - Les femmes noires au Louvre

 

Black Camera: An International Film Journal Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring 2026)

 

Black Women at the Louvre, Practices of Worldmaking, and the Rehabilitation of Disfigured Images: Reflections on Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus

by Beti Ellerson

 

https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00109

 

Image: Screen capture from Fragments of Venus  

 Abstract

This article navigates the journeys, voyages, odysseys of Black women’s creative power, as the Louvre becomes their point of inquiry. The article explores their practices of looking; how they reimagine ways of seeing, reinvent a world that centers their experiences. The Louvre becomes a metaphor, a space that allows world-making and self-making based on their terms. The Louvre is also a space of resistance and confrontation, as Black women crash the gatekeepers, by dismantling the structures that exclude and efface representations of the Other. The article examines as well, the ways that Black women reformulate practices of curating inside and outside the museum, creating exhibitions, cultural spaces, less foreign, more human, more welcoming. Faith Ringgold, Toni Morrison, Beyoncé, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and more recently Alice Diop, have journeyed there in their work, in their imaginary. Other women have excavated the museum from without, such as Robin Coste Lewis, in her poetry. The article follows their paths, crossings and peregrinations as they interrogate art, language, race, gender, class, the body, belonging, the foreigner.

Introduction
African American Women and the Louvre: A Site of Inquiry
- Faith Ringgold: Dancing at the Louvre
- Toni Morrison: Foreigner’s Home
- Beyoncé: I Can’t Believe We Made It
- Barbara Chase-Riboud: When a Knot Is Untied, a God Is Set Free
Louvre Grounds: An Enduring Space for Black Women’s Self-Making
In Search of Black Venuses
Alice Diop’s Journey