Sembène 100
March 3–April 21, 2024
A centennial tribute featuring new digital restorations and rare 35mm prints in honor of the great filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, whose cinema is about Senegal coming into its own as a nation. Rebellious and committed, Sembène paved the way for generations of African filmmakers.
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Mandabi
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Black Girl
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Moolaadé
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Sembène!
Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman
United States, Senegal, 2015Sunday, March 3 3 PMView Details“A documentary about the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker, this movie covers the essentials about a cultural warrior whose nine varied features and assorted shorts could still use better recognition” (New York Times).
Black Girl
Ousmane Sembène
France, Senegal, 19664K Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 7 7 PMView DetailsHer postcolonial hopes dashed, a young Senegalese woman is led to a dramatic act of resistance in Black Girl, considered Africa’s first dramatic feature. With Borom sarret, a poignant, politically charged essay on a cart driver in the poorer sections of Dakar, and Niaye, about the scandal of a pregnant young girl.
Mandabi
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 19684K Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 14 7 PMView DetailsA comic fable about a middle-aged man in Dakar whose life changes when he receives a money order from Paris. “[Ousmane] Sembène’s approach is spare, laconic, slightly ironic, and never patronizing” (New York Times). The film received the International Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Sembène!
Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman
United States, Senegal, 2015Friday, March 22 5 PMView Details“A documentary about the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker, this movie covers the essentials about a cultural warrior whose nine varied features and assorted shorts could still use better recognition” (New York Times).
Emitaï
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 19714K Digital Restoration
Sunday, March 24 4 PMView DetailsNamed for the Diola god of thunder, a story about the awakening of national consciousness, in the clash between French colonists and the Diola tribe in the closing days of World War II. “Told with great sensitivity and restraint” (San Francisco Chronicle). Preceded by the short dramatic film Tauw.
Xala
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 19754K Digital Restoration
Sunday, March 31 4 PMView DetailsAn aging, affluent businessman about to marry his third wife is struck with the curse of xala (impotence) in “one of the most sophisticated works of the African cinema—at once both comic satire and a deadly accurate polemic against the black bourgeoisie of Dakar” (Albert Johnson).
Ceddo
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 19774K Digital Restoration
Sunday, April 7 1:30 PMView DetailsIn the guise of a political thriller set in the eighteenth century, Ceddo takes on taboo subjects—Islamic influence in Senegal, African support for the slave trade, the status of women—becoming a reflection on all forms of colonialism in Africa. “Like a contemporary Euripides, [Ousmane] Sembène has created a form of public, primal art” (Village Voice).
Guelwaar
Ousmane Sembène
France, Senegal, 1992Digital Restoration
Saturday, April 13 7 PMView DetailsWhen the body of a murdered political activist goes missing from the morgue, his family’s attempts to retrieve it nearly escalate into a holy war. “A work of wry sophistication” (New York Times).
Faat Kiné
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 200135mm Archival Print
Friday, April 19 7 PMView DetailsThe first in Ousmane Sembène’s series on “everyday heroes” (Moolaadé is the second) centers on the quick-witted proprietress of a Dakar gas station. “A rich comedy of manners that gives a feeling of hope about Africa’s future” (Film Comment).
Moolaadé
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, France, Burkina Faso, 2004Imported 35mm Print
Sunday, April 21 2 PMView DetailsUniversally acclaimed, Ousmane Sembène’s final film portrays a mother’s courage in protecting the next generation of women from the terrible tradition of female genital mutilation. “A masterpiece of political filmmaking” (New York Times).