Abderrahmane Sissako’s African Worlds – Bamako (The Court) [In-Person Only]
$10 General Admission
$7 Student/Child/Senior/Member
⚠️ Public safety notice ⚠️
NWFF patrons will be required to wear masks that cover both nose and mouth while in the building. Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them. To be admitted, patrons ages 5+ will also be required to present either proof of COVID-19 vaccination OR a negative result from a COVID-19 test administered within the last 48 hours.
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About
** This film series is co-presented by the UW African Studies Program, Black Cinema Collective, Henry Art Gallery, Northwest Film Forum, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. **
An extraordinary trial is taking place in a residential courtyard in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. African citizens have taken proceedings against such international financial institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whom civil society blames for perpetuating Africa’s debt crisis, at the heart of so many of the continent’s woes. As numerous trial witnesses (schoolteachers, farmers, writers, etc.) air bracing indictments against the global economic machinery that haunts them, life in the courtyard presses forward. Melé, a lounge singer, and her unemployed husband Chaka are on the verge of breaking up; a security guard’s gun goes missing; a young man lies ill; a wedding procession passes through; and women keep everything rolling – dyeing fabric, minding children, spinning cotton, and speaking their minds.
Written and directed by the celebrated filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (Waiting for Happiness) and co-executive produced by Danny Glover (who also provides a cameo in the film), this critically acclaimed political drama – filled with a lush mix of warm colors and impassioned music – offers a unique opportunity for audiences to become familiar with contemporary Africa. Sissako, who grew up in the courtyard that the film is set in, hired professional lawyers and judges along with “witnesses” to express their true feelings. Bamako voices Africa’s grievances in an original and profoundly moving way.
Stills courtesy of Icarus Films.
(Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali & France, 2006, 117 min, in French, Bambara, English & Hebrew with English subtitles)
“A courtroom drama with a difference… a light touch, a dry wit, and vast sympathy.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“[An] intimate, urgent and wildly imaginative indictment of post-colonial economic policies in Africa.” —Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
“Bamako is an attack on globalization that is endlessly cogent, confrontational — and, best of all, as captivating as it is illuminating.” —Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
More from this series:
Four films and a lecture by Abderrahmane Sissako holding the transformational poetics of humanitarian cinema.
Apr. 22 | 1–3pm | Life on Earth (1998) at Henry Art Gallery Auditorium
Apr. 23 | 3–5pm |Waiting for Happiness (2002) at Henry Art Gallery Auditorium
Apr. 24 | 1–3pm | Bamako (2006) at NWFF
Apr. 25 | 6–8pm | Timbuktu (2014) at NWFF
Apr. 26 | 7–8:30pm | Translating African Worlds: A Conversation with Filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, Kane Hall at University of Washington
The Katz Lecture on Apr. 26 is hosted and sponsored by SCH in co-presenting partnership with UW African Studies Program, Black Cinema Collective, Henry Art Gallery, and Northwest Film Forum.
Abderrahmane Sissako
Black Cinema Collective
www.blackcinemacollective.org