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X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The Film Study Center at Harvard University
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20190930T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20190930T210000
DTSTAMP:20210119T205937Z
CREATED:20190709T002251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T205937Z
UID:16169-1569870000-1569877200@filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Atalaku by Dieudo Hamadi at the HFA
DESCRIPTION:Atalaku\nDirected by Dieudo Hamadi.\nDRC/France\, 2013\, DCP\, color\, 60 min.\nLingala and French with English subtitles.\nDCP source: Swank \nDieudo Hamadi is the 2019-20 McMillan-Stewart Fellow in Distinguished Filmmaking at the Film Study Center at Harvard University. \nFilmed during the 2012 elections\, supposedly the first democratic elections since the nation’s independence in 1960\, Atalaku (“Town Criers”) describes with equal vigor the poor functioning of democracy within the country as well as a multiplicity of facets of daily life and human relationships that this circumstance helps reveal. The film follows three central protagonists. The first\, Gaylor\, is an ordinary pastor\, affiliate of a church where he exhorts his parishioners\, endlessly invoking the name of the Lord to convince women in the audience to donate money. He becomes a tout for candidates in the elections\, a “crier” who incites local residents to attend meetings for the political hopefuls who employ him; as he goes through the markets distributing small sums of money\, little electoral arguments entrusted to him by incumbents to the national assembly\, he keeps as much as he can for himself. The second protagonist is an orchestra of some twenty members\, young musicians who rehearse\, argue and get drunk in a vast cemetery. The third is a group of young women who belong to a citizens’ association; they canvas the streets explaining to people why and how to vote and supervise ballot procedure in polling stations. Through these encounters\, Atalaku captures the shameless use of bribes\, as well as the political passion of many citizens\, the misogyny still in force including among “democrats\,” and the force of a clergy imbued with mysticism. The film ends with the riots that stem from an electoral process so clearly marred by numerous irregularities\, and the repression that ensues. But it is the whole of relations to the electoral process that appears as biased\, ineffective and immoral\, even before the fraud that would bring dictator Joseph Kabila back to power. \nPRECEDED BY \nLadies in Waiting\nDirected by Dieudo Hamadi and Divita Wa Lusala.\nDRC/South Africa\, 2009\, 35mm\, color\, 24 min.\nFrench with English subtitles.\nPrint source: Swank \nThe first short in the omnibus Congo en 4 actes\, this film takes place in a maternity ward in Kinshasa—an environment familiar to Hamadi\, who studied medicine before turning his hand to filmmaking. Through the exemplary situation of women who have just given birth\, the film presents in detail the unbearable tension within a dysfunctional society\, marked at once by tremendous poverty and violence (which translates in particular to numerous rapes and children born of these rapes); the unrestrained commoditization of relationships; widespread corruption; and a litigious bureaucracy. Dames en attente focuses on the hospital accountant—whose job it is to collect birthing fees from women who cannot afford to pay—as she pleads a particularly dire case to the administration\, or even attempts to convince the children’s fathers (if they have not disappeared) to foot the bill. As witness to situations—occasionally extreme—that ordinarily remain hidden\, the film develops a rich portrait that refuses to pass judgment; instead\, it makes manifest the endless obstacles and dead-ends within a collective mechanism\, one not limited\, of course\, to maternity wards.
URL:https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/event/mcmillan-screening-atalaku/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, 24 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Atalaku_web.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20190929T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20190929T210000
DTSTAMP:20210119T205846Z
CREATED:20190709T002251Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210119T205846Z
UID:15500-1569783600-1569790800@filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu
SUMMARY:Examen d'état (National Diploma) by Dieudo Hamadi at the HFA
DESCRIPTION:Examen d’état\n(National Diploma)\nDirected by Dieudo Hamadi.\nDRC/France\, 2014\, DCP\, color\, 92 min.\nDCP source: Icarus Films \nDieudo Hamadi is the 2019-20 McMillan-Stewart Fellow in Distinguished Filmmaking at the Film Study Center at Harvard University. \nThe high school exit examination\, which grants diplomas and allows entrance to university\, is perceived as a passport to a better life. A poor teenage orphan who works in the markets before and after school to survive\, Joël serves as a guide and conduit into the violent\, cynical and unjust world that is the final year of high school. Although they absolutely need\, or think they need\, to attend the last year of high school in order to have a chance on the exam\, the students who cannot afford to pay for the third trimester are ruthlessly excluded. The feeling of injustice is even more acute as many classes from the preceding terms\, for which the students did pay\, never took place: often working without pay\, teachers frequently go on strike. Alongside this administrative confrontation\, multiple magic practices participate in the effort to ensure good results on the exam: Christian priests hawk supposedly salvific benedictions while shamans offer various magic recipes. Students excluded from the school for financial reasons band together to study in an atmosphere also marked by corruption and power struggles. Ultimately\, all are counting on cheating during the exam in order to obtain their diplomas. This organized cheating on a national scale reflects an environment where corruption is the rule\, a rule known and accepted by all even if officials make a big show of their respect for procedure. As it brings these processes to light\, Examen d’état also offers\, through Joël and his classmates\, a series of portraits of some extraordinarily keen young people\, who are capable of mobilizing a wide range of strategic skills in the attempt to reach their goal.
URL:https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/event/mcmillan-screening-examen-detat-national-diploma/
LOCATION:Harvard Film Archive\, 24 Quincy St.\, Cambridge\, MA\, 02138\, United States
CATEGORIES:Screening
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/NATIONAL-DIPLOMA-02_Image-courtesy-Icarus-Films_web.jpg
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