Soleil Ô + Fannie’s Film

Soleil Ô
Directed by Med Hondo (1970)
98min, DCP
With Robert Liensol, Théo Légitimus, Ambroise Mbia, Gabriel Glissant, Akonio Dolo, Greg Germain, Jean-Baptiste Tiémélé, Mabousso Lo, Georges Hilarion

In French with English subtitles

A furious cry of resistance against racist oppression and a revolutionary landmark of political cinema, this feature debut from Mauritanian director Med Hondo is a bitterly funny, dazzlingly experimental attack on capitalism and the legacies of colonialism. Made by the most militant of the giants of African Cinema, the film follows a starry-eyed immigrant as he leaves West Africa and journeys to Paris in search of a job, a community, and intellectual engagement—but soon discovers a hostile society where his very presence engenders fear and resentment. Soleil Ô was self-financed and shot over three years in the aftermath of May '68, and searching for a new form, the director turned away from conventional narrative. From the stylized and surreal opening sequences to the episodic adventures of a particular man, the director presents a series of imaginative set pieces, linked by voiceover narrative, that investigate and dramatize a complex of interrelated themes. Hondo crafts a shattering vision of awakening Black consciousness to create a historically astute and breathtaking cinematic manifesto for liberation.

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Fannie’s Film
Directed by Fronza Woods (1981)
15min, DCP

A 65-year-old cleaning woman for a professional dancers' exercise studio performs her job, while telling us in voiceover about her life, hopes, goals, and feelings. A challenge to mainstream media's ongoing stereotypes of women of color who earn their living as domestic workers, this seemingly simple documentary achieves a quiet revolution: the expressive portrait of a fully realized individual.

Join us after the screening on Friday, February 7, for a conversation between programmer Yasmina Price and Kazembe Balagun, writer, activist, and executive director of the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.