CURATED PROGRAMME BY KATARINA HEDRÉN
ENTANGLED REALITIES – FILMS IN CONVERSATION
19.05. | Votiv Kino, Gr. Saal
Curator’s Note
I am pleased to have been invited to curate three films to converse with with three films featured in the 2022 edition of ethnocineca: Fatherland by Moritz Siebert, Under the white Mask by Matthias De Groof and The Door of Return by Kokutekeleza Elena Musebeni and Anna Zhukovets. These three films focus on the troubled relationship between Africa and Europe, marred by racism and exploitation, historically and in the present.
I let the silent fury of hunger striking Gerson Liebl – the forsaken grandson of a German colonialist – in Fatherland reverberate against the post-colonial existential angst of three young souls in Windhoek, Namibia in Perivi Katjavivi’s poetic contemplation, The Unseen.
I pair Aimé Césairs indictment of European invaders, who have yet to return their stolen goods in Under the white Mask, with the anguish of young freedom-loving contemporary artists grappling with the legacy and trauma of colonialism plus dysfunctional leadership in its wake, through Mpumelelo Mcata’s brave feature-debut, Black President.
The Door of Return dreams of a better future and links the rebirth of black consciousness in Germany to contemporary socio-political events and traces them back to the proud tradition of black women academics, activists and artist. Dagmar Schultz’s Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 functions as its prequel portraying the first generation of black German activism and the role the American poet played in bringing them together.
Katarina Hedrén
Katarina Hedrén is an Ethiopia-born Johannesburg-based Swedish film critic and film programmer. She wasa member of the 2021 selection committee for the pan-African film festival FESPACO and contributed to the anthology Gaze Regimes – Films and Feminisms in Africa (Mistry & Schuhmann, Wits University Press, 2015).
