Algérie en flammes (Algeria in Flames). 1958. Algeria. Directed by René Vautier. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 20 min.
In 1956, the anticolonial activist René Vautier joined the Algerian National Liberation Army to make films that would counter the propaganda of the French state. His Algeria in Flames, while propagandistic in its own way, presents rare scenes of life in the Algerian maquis as well as several military actions against the French army. This exceptional document was banned in France for years. Courtesy Moira Chappedelaine-Vautier
Octobre à Paris (October in Paris). 1962. France. Directed by Jacques Panijel. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 70 min.
On October 17, 1961, the Parisian police violently supressed a peaceful demonstration by Algerians, killing dozens. Filmmaker Jacques Panijel broke the State-imposed silence on these events by making documents public, recording eyewitness accounts, and reconstructing certain moments of this tragic night. That the film was even made, clandestinely and with little means, only heightens its formal inventiveness. The film was immediately banned, and only when the filmmaker René Vautier went on a hunger strike in 1973 did its censorship lift. Courtesy Les Films de l’Atalante