african.film: touki bouki

screen shot from “Touki Bouki”

Finally watched “Touki Bouki”, Djibril Diop Membety’s first feature from 1973 about two disaffected Senegalese youth in love who dream of leaving Dakar for Paris. Mambety told his stories in a witty, idiosyncratic visual and sonic language that was influenced by French Surrealism. This makes his movies hard to sit through as the narrative jumps around in time, the same scene play multiple times, visual references sail miles above the viewer’s head and Josephine Baker pops up every once in a while to sing about Paris. Patience ultimately rewards as he tackles relevant African themes particularly traditionalism vs modernity. The DVD I rented also has a short, “Contras’ City”. It, you know, contrasts the Dakar left by the French with its colonial architecture and baroquism, with the controlled chaos of the “other” (real) Dakar of open air markets, madrassas, public water fountains. It is accompanied by a haunting, mesmerizing kora score that is still playing in my head.

See also: Le Franc, and La Petite Vendeuse De Soleil, (The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun), part of a trilogy called “tales of little people” Mambety never completed (he died during post-production for “Little Girl…”)

random goodness

Music: Roisin Murphy “Let Me Know”. Murphy reinterprets the Brit dance/soul that I so loved in the late 80’s (think Lisa Stansfield, Total Contrast, Loose Ends) with a hint of electroclash darkness/menace.

“BHF magazine Photo Gallery: I am African“. Portrait series of Africans around the diaspora.

Amy Stein: Halloween in Harlem portraits of Harlem kids in Halloween costumes.

Dale Yudelman: Suburbs in Paradise Johannesburg in the 1980’s.