In this opening event of the ‘Decolonisation in Motion’ film season, we explore how and why filmmaking became a weapon of African anti-colonial movements from the late 1950s onwards as well as a tool of nation-building in newly independent states. The talk will be interwoven with a series of rarely seen film shorts, including Pierre Clément’s Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef (1958), René Vautier’s Algeria in Flames (1958) [courtesy of Moïra Chappedelaine-Vautier] and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s A Nation is Born (1961). All films are in original languages with English subtitles.

With Walid Benkhaled (Bodleian Library), documentary maker and specialist in post-colonial cinema, and Natalya Vince (University College, Oxford), historian of decolonisation in the Francophone world.

This event is part of the ‘Decolonisation in motion’ film season, organised by University College at the Bodleian Library 10 October-14 November 2023 www.univ.ox.ac.uk/news/decolonisation-in-motion