These four films, all concerned with Guinea-Bissau’s and Cape Verde’s struggles for independence, are from different time frames and perspectives. The liberation leader and political thinker Amílcar Cabral is a thread through three of them. Cacheu, another of Portuguese filmmaker Filipa César’s single-take performance films, analyzes four statues seen in photographs and film footage in different configurations over time, revealing the dark past of the Portuguese colonial presence in Africa. Madina Boé, made in support of Guinea-Bissau’s liberation struggle by Cuban filmmaker José Massip, includes portraits of guerillas—a hunter, canoe builder, and poet, as well as an anti-fascist Portuguese doctor. The first film of independent Guinea-Bissau, The Return of Amílcar Cabral uses Guinean songs and archival footage of Cabral, who was assassinated in 1973, to honor him on the occasion of the transfer of his remains from Conakry to Guinea-Bissau in 1976. Carnival in Bissau, by French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror (of Guadaloupean descent), is a joyous meditation on the importance of creativity to the African people and its role in strengthening Guinea-Bissau’s sense of national unity. Beautiful, ephemeral masks replace the colonial statues that opened the program.

We will play a selection of music featured in Ntone Edjabe’s new book La Discothèque de Sarah Maldoror beginning at 7:00, when the doors open.