This program examines the technical capacity of filmmaking to encode and organize new myths for the expansiveness of modern African people. Pairing legendary Malian film Yeelen (Souleymane Cissé, 1987) with contemporary Kenyan film Smoke Jumpers (Daniel Muchina, 2023), this program illuminates the intricate relationship between the structured systems of knowledge prevalent in ancient African societies and the creation of visual narrative forms as vehicles for disseminating this wisdom. It investigates how the fusion of visual art and scientific methodology finds expression through cinema, evolving into a ceremonial conduit.
Curated by Wangechi Ngugi and Daniel Muchina.
Discussion after the screening on Zoom with Filmmaker/curator Daniel Muchina in conversation with Jheanelle Brown
SCREENING
Smoke Jumpers
Daniel Muchina, Kenya, 2023, digital, color, sound, 4:15
A mythical portrayal of a priestess attempting to cross the threshold between mortal and immortal worlds in search of resources for her ailing world. In this liminal space, she meets a group of deified figures known only as Smoke Jumpers; custodians of ancestral knowledge who trade her the secrets of their fire rituals but warn her against their practical use.
Yeelen
Souleymane Cissé, Mali, 1987, 35mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 105 minutes
In this epic drama drawing on Bambara culture, which echoes mythic legends in an invented tale, a hero undergoes ordeals that allow him to renovate a decaying society. A young man must penetrate the secrets of the Komo cult (a real caste of specialist knowledge among the Bambara), whose members have abused their spiritual powers. Niamankoro suffers his father's wrath as he travels throughout the Bambara empire and Dogon and Peul societies.
Tickets: $10 General | $5 Student/Seniors | FREE for LA FIlmforum Members
Wangechi Ngugi is an award-winning film producer and curator based in Nairobi, Kenya. With a deep passion for cinematic storytelling, she collaborates with filmmakers and artists to create impactful and resonant narratives. Wangechi is also the co-founder of Monsoons Creative Studio, a leading film production company in Kenya.
Daniel Muchina is a film & video artist working and living in Nairobi, Kenya. He's the co-founder and director at Monsoons Studio, an independently registered and licensed film production company. Muchina is currently the artistic director, researcher and writer for Art & Science Films Afrika (ASFA) a program designed to investigate ritual practices in prehistoric Africa, and the role art plays as a vestige of the knowledge informing these rituals. Using film and video art, the program seeks to build a bridge to link indigenous systems of knowledge embodied in African mythologies with modern Africa.
Souleymane Cissé is one of Africa's most admired and respected filmmakers. Born in Bamako, Mali in 1940, Cissé went to high school in Dakar, Senegal. He began his film career as a film projectionist and was moved to begin creating his own films during a screening of a documentary film about Patrice Lumumba's arrest. He obtained a scholarship to the VGIK in Moscow. He then returned to Mali and joined the Ministry of Information as a cameraman, where he produced documentaries and short films. In 1975 he shot Den Muso (The Young Girl), the first full-length Malian feature in the Bambara language. It was immediately banned by the government, and Cissé was arrested and jailed for having accepted French funding. His next feature, Baara (Work),was produced in 1977 and won the Etalon de Yennenga at FESPACO in 1978, and Finye (The Wind) produced in 1982, won the Tanit d’Or at Carthage Film Festival in 1982 and the Etalon de Yennenga in 1983. His 1993 masterpiece, Yeelen (Brightness) won the Prix du Jury in Cannes in 1987. His film Waati (Time) competed for the Cannes Palme d'Or in 1995. Cissé is Founding President of the Union of West African Cinema and Audiovisual Designers and Entrepreneurs and devotes his energy to developing an economically viable African audiovisual industry. He is also on the board of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, dedicated to preserving and restoring classic films from around the world.