Specters of Freedom

DVD Launch
2018

DVD edition: Specters of Freedom – Cinema and Decolonization(2018)

– Co-editor (with Tobias Hering).
Booklet +6 digitalized films produced in connection with the African Liberated Movements of 60’s and 70’s.

This project is the continuation of Specters of Freedomscreening program of 2012, at Kino Arsenal, Berlin.

The DVD project is co-produced by ARSENAL – Institut für Film und Videokunst, Arsenal Filmgalerie 451 and Goethe-Institut, with collaboration of the Cinemathèque de Algers, the Portuguese Cinematheque and the Mozambique Film Institute.

The six films on this DVD edition are powerful examples of how cinema and filmmaking have engaged in the struggle against colonial oppression and in the momentous task of decolonizing a world marked by centuries of European hegemony over large parts of the Global South. If “Specters of Freedom” refers to the spectral and unruly nature of all films, particularly when they are taken out of an archive and brought back to life, the title also suggests that the colonial past keeps haunting our present. The political and poetic verve of these films – publicly released here for the first time on DVD – is anything but outdated.

DVD 1
MUEDA, MEMÓRIA E MASSACRE (Mueda, Memory and Massacre) Ruy Guerra, Mozambique 1979–80, 75 min
ESTAS SÃO AS ARMAS (These Are the Weapons) Murilo Salles, Mozambique 1978, 59 min
REASSEMBLAGE Trinh T. Minh-ha, USA 1982, 40 min

DVD 2
LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLI (The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting) Assia Djebar, Algeria 1982, 59 min
DEIXEM-ME AO MENOS SUBIR ÀS PALMEIRAS (At Least Let Me Climb the Palm Trees) Joaquim Lopes Barbosa, Mozambique 1972, 71 min
MONANGAMBEEE Sarah Maldoror, Algeria 1969, 15 min

Bonus material 44 page booklet (English)

DVD infos
Languages: Arabic, English, French, Makonde, Portuguese, Xironga
Subtitles: English
Region code: code-free
System: PAL b&w, color
Format: 4:3
Running time: 311 min
Sound format: DD 2.0
Price: 16,90 €

MUEDA, MEMÓRIA E MASSACRE (Mueda, Memory and Massacre)
One of the first filmmakers to be invited to shoot in Mozambique after independence was Ruy Guerra, who was born in the country but became well-known as one of the central figures of the Brazilian Cinema Novo. Although his film MUEDA, MEMÓRIA E MASSACRE, which was shown at the Berlinale Forum in 1981, is the only Mozambican film in the Arsenal archive, it is a clear milestone. It shows a piece of anti-colonial reminiscence work, a public reenactment staged by non-professionals of the massacre of Mueda (1960) carried out by the Portuguese. The event was regarded as triggering armed resistance in Mozambique in subsequent historiography and was remembered at regular intervals even before independence by means of popular reenactments. Ruy Guerra shot MUEDA with a clear documentary interest in this theatrical form of commemorative practice. Its subsequent marketing as the “first Mozambican feature film” provided an initial taste of the interpretational conflict that was to follow, which resulted in a complicated history of censorship.

ESTAS SÃO AS ARMAS (These Are the Weapons)
The agitprop film ESTAS SÃO AS ARMAS by Murilo Salles was edited together from archival images and formed one of the first works to be produced by the newly founded film institute in Maputo.

REASSEMBLAGE
Trinh T. Minh-ha’s debut film REASSEMBLAGE was shot in Senegal and also places image and sound in opposition, primarily as a means of deconstructing the stigmatizing, ethnological visual archive of Africa we all have in our heads.

LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLI (The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting)
For LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLI, Assia Djebar and her co-author Malek Alloula spent half a year in the Pathé and Gaumont film archives watching footage shot by French documentary filmmakers between 1912 and 1942. Their montage sifts through these “images of a deadly gaze” for the reality they conspicuously elide, for the resistance that has retreated “behind the mask”. The soundtrack blends together poetry, recitations, and experimental music into a polyphonic swan song to colonial violence.

DEIXEM-ME AO MENOS SUBIR ÀS PALMEIRAS (At Least Let Me Climb the Palm Trees)
One of the few anti-colonial films to be produced in Mozambique before independence is DEIXEM-ME AO MENOS SUBIR ÀS PALMEIRAS by Joaquim Lopes Barbosa. Shot in the style of a Russian avant-garde film, it tells the story of the suffering of and revolts carried out by a gang of rural workers. The film was banned by the Portuguese censors at the time and has only recently been given a new reception in Portugal.

MONANGAMBEEE
“Monangambeee!” Passed from village to village, this cry struck terror in the hearts of even Angola’s bravest. Men, women and children took flight and sought protection in the bush. The cry translates as “white death”, and signified certain deportation with no return. The cry once accompanied the arrival of Portuguese slave traders and in the 1960’s it was used as an identifying sign and signal to gather for the People’s Liberation Front. A woman visits her husband in prison. When departing, she promises him a “Complet”, but the guard betrays him by informing the prison director. Based on a misunderstanding over which language the woman speaks, and the meaning of the word, it comes to interrogation and torture.

2024
Manif d’art 11 – La biennale de Québec
Québec city, Canadá
Collective exhibition
2023
International Anti-Racist Festival – MICAR
Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto, Portugal
Screening and debate
2020-2023
De-Zentralbild project – Migrants in the GDR
Berlin, Germany
online-base research
2023
ASSEMBLEIA ORDINÁRIA #3 – Editoria
Porto, Portugal
Talk
2023
Archival Assembly #2
Berlin, Germany
Festival
2023
ARCHIVING EXHIBITING. GOING OFF-SCRIPT IN ART ARCHIVES – Sala Colonial project
Picasso Museum, Barcelona, Spain
International Symposium on Art Archives
2022
Empire and anti-colonialism and contemporary history – Sala Colonial project
Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon, Portugal
Anual Doctoral workshop - Presentation and debate
2022
Afriques en vision Cinemas des femmes africaines – FRAC/Institut des Afriques
FRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux, France
Screening and Masterclass
2022
XXIII Doctoral School, “Fábrica de Ideias”
Centre for African Studies (CEA-UEM), Mozambique
Workshop
2022
Biographies and Liberation: Life Writing in Transversal Perspectives
ARPAC, Maputo, Mozambique
Conference /screening
2022
Union of Struggles, otherwise – 17th Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul, Turkey
Collective exhibition
2022
Les Péninsules démarrées – Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA
Bordeaux, France
Collective exhibition
2022
PING! Session for Teachers
Café Rivoli, Porto, Portugal
Public talk
2022
ZfK 2/2021 The Post/Colonial Museum (ADAPTER)
Germany
Article in book
2022
Screening of Mueda, Memoria e Massacre at Barbican Center
London, UK
Screening + Introduction
2022
Colonial room. The movie (Sala colonial. O filme) at Escola Secundária de Latino Coelho
Lamego, Portugal
Premiere screening
2022
GIFmeback# Memória de Elefante – ping! Galeria Municipal do Porto
Porto, Portugal
Workshop
2022
SOS – STOLEN OBJECTS STORIES by BABEL-nonprofit, Macao Institute for Tourism Studies 澳門旅遊學院 e USJ – University of Saint Joseph
Macao, China
Online conference
2021
CONCRETA 18 – Dialogue as restitution and reparation. Beyond objects.
Online, Spain
Magazine launch
2021
LA COLECCIÓN. Vasos Comunicantes 1881-2021/ Communicating Vessels. Collection 1881-2021
Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Collection exhibit
2021
Trauma response
Duplex Gallery, Lisboa, Portugal
Collective show
2021
Restitution and reparation in post-conflict identity
CCFM and CCMA, Maputo, Mozambique
Online Debates + exhibition
2021
Sala colonial – Colonial room
Museu de Lamego, Portugal
Research project/exhibition
2021
Archival Assembly in Berlin
Several venues, Berlin, Germany
Festival
2021
The Silence of the Earth – O Silêncio Da Terra
Museu Nogueira da Silva, Braga, Portugal
Collective exhibition
2021
Direito à informação | Right to information, Galerias Municipais | EGEAC, 2021 (upcoming)
Lisbon, Portugal
Book launch
2021
Latitude on Air – episode on Decolonizing Film Archives
Radio Netzwerk Berlin
on 88,4 mhz Berlin and 90,7 mhz Potsdam.
Radio show
2021
Associação de Amigos da Praça do Anjo invites Catarina Simão.
Cooperativa dos Pedreiros. Porto
Screening + Talk
2020
Living Archive Cairo / Virtual MRI Residencies
Cimatheque-Alternative Film Centre - Cairo, Egypt.
Mentorship
2020
Olhares do Mediterrâneo – Women’s Film Festival 7th Edition
Cinema São Jorge + ISCTE-IUL (Lisbon) | FILMIN Portugal (online)
Jury
2020
Mueda Memória e Massacre in Il Cinema Ritrovato
IL CINEMA RITROVATO, Bologna
Screening + introduction
2020
Reopening of R-HUMOR exhibition
Galeria da Avenida das Índias, Lisbon
Reopening of exhibition
2020
Reworking images as counterpart of today’s landscape – Interview part #1
FOTOTA
online publishing
2020
Effects of Wording at Ideias no Escuro
ideiasnoescuro.com
online screening
2020
Mueda 79 at Ideias no Escuro
ideiasnoescuro.com
online screening
2020
Berlinale Forum/ Forum Expanded
Silent Green Kulturquartier, Berlin
Talk
2020
Conversations R-Humor
Galeria Avenida da Índia, Lisbon
Public Program
2020
R-Humor
Galeria da Avenida da Índia, Lisbon
Exhibition
2019
A Meeting With the Mozambique Film Archive
Ar.Co, Lisbon
Artist Talk
2019
Memory, Diversity and Identities: Challenges for Intercultural Relations in the 21st Century
Beira Interior University, Covilhã, Portugal
International Seminar
2019
Documentation and Art Practice
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Art Library
Conference
2019
Sonhámos um país – Camilo de Sousa and Isabel Noronha
Culturgest, DocLisboa
Film Presentation
2019
Everything passes except the past
Goethe Institute Portugal / Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal
Workshop
2019
Mutantes #3: encontro com Catarina Simão
Salamanca Fine Arts School
Seminar / Artist Talk
2019
Paixão Escancarada – Vavy Pacheco Borges
Cinemateca Portuguesa
Book Presentation
2019
Reframing the Archive
Arquivo Fotográfico do Porto
Conference
2019
Archive-Making: Talk with Catarina Simão
Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Artist Talk
2019
Critical Entanglements: Colonialism, Anthropology and the Visual Arts + Ethnographically Intimate
Room 215, Museum of Anthropology - University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Exhibition and workshop
2019
Cinema, Leituras e Contextos – Cinema, readings and contexts
Social Sciences Institute - Lisbon University
Seminar
2019
La lutte de libération du point de vue des images. Les images du point de vue de la lutte de libération. Notes sur les films Djambo (2016) et Effects of Wording (2014)
Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris
Artist Talk
2019
Descolonizar os museus: isto na prática?
Social Sciences Institute - Lisbon University
Conference
2019
Critical images: (Dis)comfort of Images and Injuries of History
Filmhuset, Stockholm
Talk
2019
Respect and Recognition (Respekt und Anerkennung Internationale Tagung)
Magdeburg, Germany
Conference/ Screening program
2018
Mueda in excess: the massacre of Mueda in history and in cinema
CEA (Mondlane University), Maputo, Mozambique
Seminar
2018
Exodus Stations #4
Quai Branly, Paris
Art Residency Presentation / Artist Talk
2018
Exodus Stations #4
Paris
Publication
2018
Effects of Wording at Archive Kabinett
Archive Kabinett, Berlin, Germany
Screening / Talk
2018
Djambo (2016)
Nampula
Screening
2018
Exodus Station #4
Museum fur Völkerkunde, Leipzig
Publication
2018
Exodus Station #4 – La Volonté des Archives
Collège d'études Mondiales, FMSH
Art Residency Presentation / Artist Talk
2018
Effects of Wording
MASP - São Paulo Art Museum
Collective Exhibition
2018
Djambo (2016)
Espaço Campanhã, Porto
Screening / Conference
2018
Exodus Station #4
Quai-Branly Museum
Art Residency
2018
Exodus Stations #4
Grassi Museum
Art Residency
2017
Cinema, fotografia e vídeo nos arquivos de Mozambique: reapropriação como alternativa à preservação de imagens em perigo de desaparecer
Beira Interior University, Covilhã
Seminar
2017
Effects of Wording
Hangar, Lisbon
Screening / Talk
2017
A memória involuntária dos arquivos: o caso do Mozambique Institute Project
National Ethnology Museum, Lisbon
Seminar
2017
Untimely Colaboration
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
Seminar
2017
Effects of Wording
Cinemateca Portuguesa
Screening
2017
Effect and Wording
CEA, Maputo, Mozambique
Screening / Talk
2017
Djambo (2016)
Centro Cultural Português, Maputo
Screening / Debate
2017
Djambo (2016)
Social Sciences Institute - Lisbon University
Screening / Talk
2017
Mueda 79
Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Collective Exhibition / Installation
2017
Djambo
Mozambique/Portugal
Film
2017
Five minutes with Ruy Guerra
Glasgow, Scotland
Video / Exhibition
2017
Mueda, Memory and Massacre – Ruy Guerra
Africa in Motion Film Festival,
Conference / Film Presentation + Debate
2016
Ntimbe Caetano
Installation
2014
The Mozambique  Institute Project
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid
Exhibition
2015
17 Introductions for the Mozambique Institute
Book
2015
Uhuru
Bratislava
Exhibition
2015
Effects of Wording
National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine
Installation / Collective Exhibition
2015
Assambleias (Assamblies)
RE.AL "O Que Um Livro Pode", Lisbon
Performance
2015
20 Frames for Politics of Friendship
Lisbon
Online Magazine
2015
Uhuru
Book
2015
On Pedagogy
Moderna Museet, Malmo, Sweden
Screening
2014
The Mozambique Institute Project
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Madrid
Installation / Collective Exhibition
2014
Mueda 1979 / Mozambique Archive Series (2013)
Alhóndiga, Bilbao
Installation / Collective Exhibition
2014
Politics of Friendship
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Performance
2014
Effects of Wording
Lisbon
Film
2013
MUEDA 1979
Film
2013
Staging decolonization: a cinema in denial of his own present
Alhóndiga, Bilbao
Conference
2013
These are the weapons (2012)
Núcleo D'Are, Maputo, Mozambique
Installation
2012
Specters of Freedom
Berlin
Film
2012
A Forma Que Imita O Seu Assunto
Lisbon
Radio
2012
These Are The Weapons
Video-installation
2012
Off Screen Project
Andaluz Contemporary Art Centre, Seville, Spain
Exhibition / Screen Program
2012
These are the weapons
Kino Arsenal, Berlin, Germany
Installation
2011
Ghost – Book
RE.AL, Lisbon
Book
2011
Ghost
Lisbon
Artistic Residency
2011
Off Screen Project
London, UK
Exhibition / Talk / Conference
2011
Off Screen Project
Africa Cont./ Carpe Diem, Lisbon
Collective Exhibition
2010
Off Screen Project
Casa das Artes, Vila Nova de Famalicão
Collective Exhibition
2010
Off Screen Project
Manifesta 8 - European Bienal of Contemporary Art, Murcia, Spain
Collective Exhibition
2009
Restos, rastos e traços
Atelier Real
Art Residency / Exhibition / Talk
2009 - Now
Off screen project – The Mozambique Film Archive
Exhibition