Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi – The Cinema of Med Hondo

What is cinema for us? Workshop

In his films and texts, Med Hondo attempts to understand the cinema that dominates screens around the world and to make it his, working both within and against it. In his essay, “What is Cinema for Us?”, first published in English (trans. Greg Kahn) in 1979 in Framework and reprinted in 1986 in Jump Cut, Med Hondo raises the question as to a cinema that does not systematically exclude African and Arab perspectives of experience, history and culture – as European-American cinema does. In “The Cinema of Exile” (1987), he was one of the first to write about the consequences of this separation and the role that cinema assumes as an opportunity to express these experiences.

What does “African cinema” mean as a (geo)political, aesthetic and economic mark in the context of Med Hondo’s works? What does “African cinema” mean today? And as Med Hondo would ask, what gaps and friction become visible from the perspective of an absent cinema? What ideas, practices and strategies do filmmakers, archivists, cinema curators, critics and film scholars develop in view of these questions?

The workshop is intended to bring together experts on Med Hondo’s cinematic landscapes and their impact on the present. In addition, it aims to serve as a space for reflection and exchanging ideas, in which observations and perspectives are brought into proximity with one another.

With contributions by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Ute Fendler, June Givanni, Astrid Kusser, Olivier Marbœuf, Shaheen Merali, Pascale Obolo, Akin Omotoso, Cara Snyman, Abdoulaye Sounaye, Ibrahima Wane.

Public Sessions:

1 Sept., 5–9:30 pm
2 Sept., 3–6 pm
3 Sept,, 3-6 pm at Archive Kabinett

Full workshop program

Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi—an exhibition with Theo Eshetu (Archive Kabinett, 20.8.–10.9.), Sebastian Bodirsky and Guy Woueté (SAVVY Contemporary, 26.8.–3.9.). Film Program at Arsenal.

The project is being supported by the TURN fund of the Federal Cultural Foundation. With thanks to the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Goethe-Institut Yaoundé, Archive Kabinett, SAVVY Contemporary, and silent green Kulturquartier.

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Entrance free