The Tree of Authenticity

Located on the banks of the Congo River, the Yangambi INERA Research Station was a booming scientific center in its heyday, but today it is an amalgam of jungle and ruin. Sammy Baloji’s gripping documentary The Tree of Authenticity recounts the stigma of ecological destruction that began at the time of colonization through the voices of two emblematic scientists who worked at Yangambi between 1910 and 1950: Paul Panda Farnana and Abiron Beirnaert. Their stories embody the legacies of colonial modernity and trace the origins of today’s environmental injustice.