Monangambééé 1968. Algeria. Directed by Sarah Maldoror. Screenplay by Sarah Maldoror, Serge Michel, Mário Pinto de Andrade. With Carlos Pestana, Noureddine Dreis, Mohamed Zinet, Athmane Sabi, Elisa Pestana. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 16 min.
Conakry. 2013. Germany, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau. Directed by Filipa César. With Grada Kilomba, Diana McCarty. DCP. 10 min.
Acts of Guinea-Bissau (Acto dos Feitos da Guiné). 1980. Portugal. Directed by Fernando Matos Silva. Screenplay by Margarida Gouveia Fernandes, Fernando Matos Silva. 4K digital restoration by Cinemateca Portuguesa; courtesy Cinemateca Portuguesa. In Portuguese; English subtitles. 85 min.
After working as an assistant director to Paulo Rocha on The Green Years and to Fernando Lopes on Belarmino, Fernando Matos Silva was drafted into the colonial war in Guinea-Bissau and integrated into the army’s film service. There, he shot secret footage that would be included in the first Portuguese feature film about Portugal’s colonial occupations and the struggle of African independence movements: Acts of Guinea-Bissau. By intertwining documentary footage with satirical, theatrical monologues from historical figures from past Western empires, Matos Silva creates a hybrid essay on established historical narratives and their shifting power and obsolescence as propaganda. In Monangambééé, Sarah Maldoror sheds light on Portugal’s torture of Angolan political prisoners, while in Conakry, Filipa César revisits an exhibition curated by Amílcar Cabral at the Palais du Peuple in 1972 with radio activist Diana McCarty and Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba.