Award-winning director Mati Diop and independent filmmaker and publisher Manon Lutanie join us to present the world theatrical premiere of their newest collaboration, the short film Naked Blue. Since they first partnered in 2015 for Liberian Boy—a propulsive jewel-box portrait of a boy’s limber dance moves—the pair have nurtured a sensibility that bridges cinema and performance to explore their subjects’ vibrant interior worlds.
Naked Blue was developed through a collaboration with Oumy Bruni Garrel, the film’s protagonist, and Devonté Hynes, who composed its score (performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra). From this combined star power emerges a work of startling intimacy, which follows then-13-year-old Oumy’s choreographed movements through a studio set painted an underwater blue, as she dances in front of mirrors and salutes an imaginary audience. Under the blazing lights and swelling music, her performance recalls a screen test or dance film—but the resulting work breaks free from the proscenium frame typical of those genres. Rather, through a tender gaze born of real-life bonds, Naked Blue resonates with its subject’s life force while capturing a state of becoming—a fleeting moment in a youthful life. Reflecting on what the filmmakers describe “the transition from childhood to adolescence, wakefulness to trance, sadness to its overcoming, [and] the interstitial, tenuous nature of such passages,” Naked Blue creates a stage for radiant self-expression through Bruni Garrel’s magnetism, resolve, and radical autonomy.
The screening will be followed by conversation between Mati Diop, Manon Lutanie, and Devonté Hynes, moderated by Sophie Cavoulacos, associate curator in the Department of Film.
Liberian Boy. 2015. France/Canada. Directed by Mati Diop, Manon Lutanie. With Jules Langlade. Score by Wilbert Gavin. 4 min.
Untitled [photographs]. 2024. France. Directed by Manon Lutanie. 6:30 min. World premiere
Naked Blue. 2022. USA/France. Directed by Mati Diop, Manon Lutanie. With Oumy Bruni Garrel. Score by Devonté Hynes. 17 min. World theatrical premiere