SAMBIZANGA (1972. D: Sarah Maldoror)

Lecture & Film “Black Atlantic Cinema”

Lecture: Jennifer Blaylock (Rowan University)

Lecture: The Thin Green Line Between Canons and Revolutions. On Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga (1972)
What happens to the revolutionary grainy aesthetics, the militancy of the imperfect image, the subversive qualities of the damaged 16mm print, when a film enters the artistic canon? This talk will compare the degradation of 16mm Sambizanga prints in circulation in the United States during the #BlackLivesMatter movement with the recent restoration of the film and its new edit of a critical scene centered on “Black joy,” to argue that the scratches of small gauge material history release a revolutionary affect that is different from the aestheticization of revolution emphasized in the conservative act of Sambizanga‘s restoration.
Dr. Jennifer Blaylock is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio, Television & Film at Rowan University.

Film: SAMBIZANGA (AO/FR/CD 1972. D: Sarah Maldoror)
SAMBIZANGA is set in 1961: the liberation struggle is also gaining momentum in Angola. Sarah Maldoror uses everyday images to tell the story of Maria’s search for her husband Domingos, who was arrested for joining the revolution. Maldoror sensitively reveals the loneliness of a woman on an arduous journey and focuses on the time and effort required to cover this distance. Maria’s march, her quest, turns out to be a sensitive and powerful metaphor for the suffering of the Angolan people and their “development of a revolutionary consciousness”. (S. Maldoror)

Further information and program: Here…