Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema (2003) + KARINGANA the dead don’t tell stories (2020)
Margarida Cardoso + Inadelso Cossa
15 oct 2024, 21:30
Lucky Star — Cineclube de Braga
- Cinema
- Braga
Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema, 2003 — Margarida Cardoso, Mozambique/Portugal (53′)
Documentary about the National Film Institute and the “travelling cinema” implemented by the Mozambican government after independence in 1975. It portrays the beginnings of cinema in Mozambique, from its conception to the practices and functions imposed on it by FRELIMO. This travelling cinema project toured Mozambique’s towns and villages to show images of the birth of a new nation, carrying the words of leader Samora Machel. In the open air, newsreels and some fictional films reconstructing the colonial war and the history of Mozambique, promoted by the government, such as some directed by Ruy Guerra, were shown. This project also involved teaching film production techniques in the communities, culminating in the “Naissance de l’image d’une Nation” project, which had Jean-Luc Godard as its mentor, but which ended prematurely. The civil war that devastated Mozambique for decades and the tragic death of its president Samora Machel marked the end of the utopia. The belief in the possibility of a different nation and politics, built on the values of freedom and equality, united several directors who aspired to see the growth of Kuxa Kanema, the cinema of everyone for everyone. A project that also fell apart, along with the wreckage of the war and the end of the dream, leaving it with no choice but to become a mere archive.
KARINGANA the dead don’t tell stories, 2020 — Inadelso Cossa, Mozambique (10′)
The term Karingana refers to the art of storytelling, to oral history. In this short film, the Mozambican director focuses on the post-memory that circulates through generations, the one that wasn’t experienced but was passed on to descendants. It refers to the embodied memory of trauma that written history does not tell.
Thus, the main character of this film, back in his home village, tries to find out what happened, but finds the inhabitants mute, numbed by the trauma of the war, leaving him only the cinema to give him answers.
* Session with the director Margarida Cardoso
Lucky Star — Cineclube de Braga
Lúcio Craveiro da Silva Library
R. de São Paulo 1, 4700-042 Braga
Tickets:
General public: €3
Cineclube members: Free entry
Students and BLCS users: €1
More information at facebook.com/cinebraga
