• Mangrove School
  • Quantum Creole
  • Mangrove School
  • Round, Square

Walking Archives: Thoughts on Mangroves, Schools, Round Houses, and Weaving

  • In Person

    Filipa César is an artist, filmmaker, educator, and community organizer. Since 2011, César has been collectively researching the militant cinema practice of the African Liberation Movement in Guinea-Bissau, through the production of workshops, archives, films, performances, publications, and community gatherings.

Many of Filipa César’s films begin as research projects done in collaboration with others; they often include people’s memories, which collaborator Sónia Vaz Borges has called “walking archives.” Mangrove School draws on Borges’s research into the Guinea-Bissau militants’ effort to decolonize minds by creating schools during the liberation war. The poetic film is concerned with both the mangrove’s unique alluvial ecosystem and the re-creation of a school amidst the watery trees, where teachers expose the current generation to their time in the schools. In Round, Square, a conversation over tea ponders the value of traditional versus contemporary house designs. According to César, Quantum Creole, which grew out of the Looming Creole program, is “an experimental documentary film collectively researching creolization and addressing its historical, ontological and cultural forces.” It opens with a Guinea-Bissau song about what children want to know and proposes, “youth, don’t believe in the white’s lies” and “in the weaves lies our value.” The film itself is a tapestry of imaging techniques, songs, fables, and performances, including subversive takes on the origins of Guinea-Bissau’s traditional pano di pinti fabric, links between computer programming and weaving, and contemporary globalization projects as a form of recolonization.

Films in this Screening

Mangrove School

Sónia Vaz Borges, Filipa César, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, 2022

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Portuguese
  • Guinea-Bissau Creole
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 35 mins
source
  • Video Data Bank

Round, Square
(Redonda, quadrada)

Filipa César, Suleimane Biai, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, 2014

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Guinea-Bissau Creole
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 6 mins
source
  • Filipa César

Quantum Creole

Filipa César, France, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, 2020

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • French
  • German
  • Guinea-Bissau Creole
  • Portuguese
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 40 mins
source
  • Video Data Bank

Event Accessibility

If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 642-1412 (during open hours) with as much advance notice as possible. More information on accessibility services.