The Film Club: Jonelle Twum & Madubuko Diakité

Two documentaries on class and labor conditions from an Afro-Swedish perspective. Despite the nearly 50 years that have passed between the films, they show how little actually has changed for those who are made invisible by Swedish society.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the directors together with Samson Beshir, co-author of the report on Afrophobia in Sweden (Afrofobirapporten), and Manthia Diawara, Artistic Director of CinemAfrica.

Moderna Bar is open after the film club, with DJ Dr Echoe aka Isabelle Eoka, to celebrate the program release for CinemAfrica’s film festival.

About the films

The invisible people (1972)

By Madubuko Diakité
30:59 minutes

Diakité’s unique historical document, made together with Gary Engman and Nordal Åkerman, records the precarious life conditions of foreign students, immigrants, and in particular the African diaspora in the ‘70s. Thanks to Story AB.

A mother’s body (2020)

By Jonelle Twum
8:12 minutes

Twum’s poetic documentary – an intimate portrayal of two women hotel cleaners from a daughter’s perspective – shows a largely unchanged situation during the 2020s.

At the same time, both films show resistance, care, and the potential of documentary film to give expression to otherwise invisible common experiences. Together they invite a cross-generational dialogue on the possibilities of a Black archive and alternative histories.

Participants

Jonelle Twum

Jonelle Twum is a filmmaker, artistic director, researcher, and producer who works using archives and film to explore the perspectives and the narratives of minor/disregarded/unacknowledged figures. She often explores conditions of in/visibility, memory, and historiography from a Black feminist perspective. Twum is the founder of Black Archives Sweden, a contemporary archive with starting point in Afro-Swedish experiences.

Madubuko Diakité

Madubuko A. Robinson Diakité is a Human Rights lawyer, writer, and documentary filmmaker. In 1968, he moved from USA to Sweden to study filmmaking and pursue a Ph.D. In 1992, he earned a Licentiate in Law at Lund University. Since then, he has researched Human Rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund and has been active in anti-discrimination organisations in Sweden. He has published articles on film and human rights law for several international publications and has headed several projects on the rights of people of African descent.

Manthia Diawara

Manthia Diawara, guest Artistic Director at CinemAfrica 2021-2022, is a writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar and art historian. Diawara holds the title of University Professor at New York University and has published widely on the topic of film and literature of the Black Diaspora. Professor Diawara collaborated with Ngûgî wa Thiong’o in making the documentary Sembene Ousmane: The Making of the African Cinema, and directed, among other films, Rouch in Reverse, Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation and An Opera of the World, that appeared in Filmklubben in 2018.

Moderator: Samson Beshir

Samson Beshir is a lawyer, educator, and co-author of the 2014 report of Afrophobia in Sweden (Afrofobirapporten), a systematic review of the current situation on Afrophobia experienced by Swedes with African decent in Sweden.