Festa: A Trilogy by Sarah Maldoror (1979–1980)
Australian Premiere - 4K Restoration
‘In today’s times, it’s hard to imagine an artist – a Black woman, no less – being so principled yet so prolific, particularly in a medium as capital-intensive as cinema.’ – Devika Girish, The Film Comment Letter
Best known for her radical and groundbreaking 1972 film Sambizanga (Cinema Reborn 2022), Sarah Maldoror directed more than 45 shorts, documentaries and feature films from the 1960s until her passing in 2020. In 1979, having chronicled the anti-colonial liberation movements of Angola and Guinea-Bissau, Maldoror travelled to the islands of Cape Verde to document the nation’s first years of independence from Portuguese rule. Immortalising the period before the Guinea-Bissau coup d’état of November 1980, in which the union of the two countries was broken, Maldoror produced three shorts: Fogo, l’île de feu (1979, 34 mins), Cap-Vert, un carnaval dans le Sahel (1979, 28 mins) and À Bissau, le carnaval (1980, 18 mins). Forming a loose trilogy, these poetic documentaries beautifully capture the jubilance of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau’s Carnival and May Day preparations and festivities, serving as a testament to culture as the foundation of liberation.
To be preceded by a pre-recorded introduction by Sarah Maldoror’s daughter Annouchka De Andrade.
In-person introduction by Angelica Waite at Ritz Cinemas and Zac Tomé and Grace Boschetti at Lido Cinemas.
Rating
Unclassified 18+
Duration
80 min
Country
France, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau
Language
French and Portuguese (English subtitles)
Director
Sarah Maldoror
