The Cinefamily
Address
611 N. Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles
CA
90036
United States
In 1961, shortly after Senegal declared its independence from France, Ousmane Sembène, a self-educated dockworker, assigned himself an impossible task: to create a true African cinema as a “night school” for his people. His explosive debut—a film described as the first African feature (true in spirit, if not in fact)—inspired a form of fearless, socially engaged, and uncompromising cinema across the globe.
‘Black Girl’ (La Noire De) follows a young girl named Diouana’s move from Dakar to the French Riviera with the bourgeois white family who has hired her. Sembène, who got his start as an author and labor organizer, locates political gestures at their very seeds; in personal moments of impulse and morality, he tracks the gradual shift of Diouana’s temperament’s from optimistic to quietly defiant. Sembène highlights her silence, familiar to the voiceless across the globe, yet reveals Diouana’s immense dignity and, by the end, agency.
NOTES ON THE NEW 4K RESTORATION:
The restoration of La Noire de… was made possible through the use of the original camera and sound negative provided by INA and the Sembène Estate and preserved at the CNC – Archives Françaises du Film.
Dir Ousmane Sembène, 1966, DCP, 65 min.
Trailer: vimeo.com/168389149
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Black Girl will be preceded by Sembène’s first short film, Borom Sarret, about the trials of an unlucky wagoner, also newly restored.
Dir Ousmane Sembène, 1963, DCP, 20 min.
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THURSDAY, June 30
doors: 7:00pm, screening: 7:30pm
Post-screening reception hosted by Radio Afrique
$12/ free for members
tickets: http://cinefamily.ticketmob.com/event.cfm?id=142771&cart
The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
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Co-presented by The Cinefamily
more info:
cinefamily.org
rafrique.com