SankofaAfrican & diaspora cinema
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Under The White Mask: The Film That Haesaerts Could Have Made
2021

Film

Under The White Mask: The Film That Haesaerts Could Have Made

Under the White Mask: The Film Haesaerts Could Have Made uses fragments of Under the Black Mask, a 1958 film about Congolese art directed by the Belgian artist Paul Haesaerts, which has been qualified as colonial propaganda. This new film imagines what the masks – now subjects, and not objects – would say. Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism is spoken in Lingala for the first time. This speech is still a critical mirror for Europe. Under The White Mask is limited to the elements already existing in 1958.

Documentary

Where to watch

No streaming, rental or purchase listing found for this title. That’s common in this catalogue — much of African cinema has never had a digital release.