93 Mortimer Street, London
Wed 2 Sept · 18:00
This screening of Euzhan Palcy’s Au rendez-vous de la conquête (Where the Edges of Conquest Meet) (1994), the second chapter of her trilogy Aimé Césaire: une voix pour l’histoire ( Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History ), explores cross-generational inheritances of Césaire’s legacy as a revolutionary poet, dramatist, essayist, and politician. Drawing together writers, historians, and cultural commentators, Where the Edges of Conquest Meet situates Négritude within wider currents of Black internationalism. The film focuses on Paris in the 1930s where Césaire, the first President of Senegal Leopold Senghor, and the French-Guyanese poet Léon Damas developed the concept of Négritude, an international revindication of African values. Palcy examines the movement as a transnational exchange of ideas whose impact extended far beyond its historical moment. To conclude Ciné Césaire – the film programme and exhibition – Dr June Givanni and The Otolith Collective will join in conversation following the screening. Their discussion will examine Palcy’s film as both a tender portrait of a great thinker and friend, and a medium for enduring cultural thought. This project is part of Excavating Legacies, the intergenerational programme developed by Dr June Givanni that connects Pan-African cinema across five continents through exhibitions, screenings, publications and workshops. Doors open at 5.30pm; event starts at 6pm and ends at 8pm. The Otolith Group are supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.