From acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics), Dahomey is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination, and restitution. Set in November 2021, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin, the present-day Republic of Benin. Using multiple perspectives Diop questions how these artifacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Winner of the coveted Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, Dahomey is an affecting though singular conversation piece that is as spellbinding as it is essential. (Mati Diop, 2024, French with English subtitles, 68 minutes)
Followed by Statues Also Die, a surrealist-inflected examination of African statues that turns into a searing critique of colonialism and European museums, leading the film to be censored and banned in France at the time of its release in 1953. “When men die, they become history. Once statues die, they become art. This botany of death is what we call culture,” claims the narrator of this visual essay. The film was commissioned by the Paris-based Pan-African publishing giant Présence Africaine. (Alain Resnais, Chris Marker and Ghislain Cloquet, 1953, French with English subtitles, film to digital, 30 minutes)
Part of the Celebrate Black Art & History on Screen series.