Mambar Pierrette: All of Cameroon’s Cares on Her Shoulders

by Abiba Coulibaly Mambar Pierrette continues Roisin Mbakam’s exploration of the confessional function offered by informal businesses and the entrepreneurial African women who man them—following the thread of her previous film Chez Jolie Coiffeur (2018), about a sliver of a Belgian hair salon. Until now, Mbakam’s steady output has focused largely on the diaspora of her native Cameroon (Chez Jolie Coiffure [2018], Delphine’s Prayers [2021]) … Continue reading Mambar Pierrette: All of Cameroon’s Cares on Her Shoulders

Spirits Rebel: On Julius-Amédée Laou’s Cinema of Revenants

by Ruairí McCann In his poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), Aimé Césaire, through the painful, rocky passage back and forth between Africa, Martinique and France, arrives at the following commitment.  “And I should say to myself:  << And most of all beware, even in thought, of assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of … Continue reading Spirits Rebel: On Julius-Amédée Laou’s Cinema of Revenants

Celluloid Now, More Than Ever

by Olivia Hunter Willke On my way home from the first program of the all-analog avant-garde film festival organized by the Chicago Film Society, Celluloid Now, I received the call that my grandmother was dying. The next evening, as I sat watching the beautiful 35mm program unfold, my grandmother was read her last rights and I was confronted by the film III. (2022) by Alexandre … Continue reading Celluloid Now, More Than Ever

Looking for Clues: Mary Helena Clark’s First Films

by Sam Warren Miell At a certain point in the career of an artist, early work will begin to be regarded as a repository of clues to understanding what follows—rough drafts of what will be fully integrated in a ‘mature’ period, that is in turn cast as the fruition of a promise latent or only intermittently present in that early work. If this tendency risks … Continue reading Looking for Clues: Mary Helena Clark’s First Films

Oil and Water: Three Films by Nikos Nikolaidis

by Dylan Adamson At about the half hour mark of Nikos Nikolaidis’ Morning Patrol (1987), the unnamed lead character wanders into an empty movie theater, drawn by the sounds of Rita Hayworth’s “Put The Blame on Mame” echoing down the street outside. In from a post-apocalyptic Balkan wasteland, she quickly finds herself ensconced in the warm glow of old Hollywood. As in Goodbye, Dragon Inn … Continue reading Oil and Water: Three Films by Nikos Nikolaidis