Event

'Back to Mandima' and 'Footprints of My Other' (part of Congo in Harlem 4)

Back to Mandima
Dir. Robert-Jan Lancombe, 2011. 40 min.
In French and Swahili with English subtitles

"Back to Mandima, to find my village and my three best friends in the heart of the Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An attempt to bring closure to an ideal, idealized childhood and free myself from its spells. In the meantime there was a war, a vanish of time, 15 years. Nothing changed? Everything has. What is friendship, beyond skin colour, when one can take the plane and the other can't? When one uses 'tu' and the other 'vous'?"
-Robert-Jan Lancombe

Footprints of My Other
Dir. Claude Haffner, 2011. 52 min.
In English and French with English subtitles

Claude Haffner, daughter of a French father and Congolese mother, sets off for Congo in search of her African identity. Her starting point is the archive of photos left by her late father, a specialist in African cinema. She also speaks with her mother, who tells of life in Congo and adjusting to France. In 2004, Claude and her mother visited Congo for the first time since the family left in 1981. This experience has inspired Claude to return again, now alone, to deepen her relationship with her mother's family. Her journey brings her face to face with the diamond trade, and with her sense of otherness, both in Congo and back home in France.