Relatives will arrive and will suckle the insides
Words never spoken weep and deafening silences rain down in Chocó. In that newborn cry, a sonorous universe of laments dressed in Quibdoseña joy, the inside - that intangible that inhabits us, that where our most unsuspected existentialisms and feelings rest - finds a comfortable hiding place.
The inside allows the human being to let himself be swept away by the mighty river of his subjective wars, unrealized dreams and dissatisfactions. Otherwise, living would be a constant repetition of fruitions and aged happiness.
The oral storytellers of the Colombian Pacific tell that the insides have the shape of a magical creature: the face of a child and the body of an animal. Although they live in the most intrinsic part of every man and every woman, the insides will never be seen by any mortal. For this reason, no human can see someone else's inside, neither does he know his own inside.
They also say that they cry endlessly until a mother relative, Afro-descendant women from outside the territory who nurture and educate existence with their creations and thoughts, breastfeeds them. They are called relatives because, although they were neither born nor raised in the region, these women possess enriching feelings and life experiences and that makes them special and valuable souls. They also say that the hearts of Quibdó's children have not stopped crying for a long time and that the relatives will arrive soon. On that day, they will engage in a dialogue with other Afro sentiments and celebrate their subjective battles.
In the fascinating universe of the seventh art, the inside is the pleasurable cry of the filmmaker. How much delight in the daring act of digging into the private geography and discovering the regions of unspeakable pains, the regions of sacred joys and the regions of presumed frustrations. This geography delimits the route of a human and chaotic journey where freedom demands that the entrails roar and catharsis emerges in the dusty attic of unpronounceable thoughts and one's own fustigations.
With tenths and poems, the oral narrators express that the private geography allows to easily recognize the relatives, because their creations are born from a detailed delimitation of these regions and there is a balance between the sublime and the complex that strengthens the sense of life as a physical journey and spiritual purpose.
Doubt solved: these relatives are the film directors who are part of the 4th edition of the Quibdó Africa Film Festival. They have been chosen by destiny to feed everything that is there, inaccessible to the world, and dignifies the act of accepting the unchangeable and caressing one's own struggle.
Not everyone has the privilege of having their insides nurtured by French-Guinean political scientist and audiovisual director Aissa Diaby, a woman who has turned cinema into a political and social outlet for Africa's contemporary history. Silent Pain (Douleur silencieuse), her first short film, is applauded by the demanding Cannes audience. But, before the success and the approval of the critics, Diaby seeks to emancipate her own inside and validate it as an essential belonging in her construction as a woman and Afro-descendant.
Other insides will be able to suckle on the intellectual and human baggage of the French-Malian artist and filmmaker Fan Sissoko, owner of learning and experiences coated with sisterhood, human warmth, idealism and generous spirit. For her, her inner self is a force that empowers her and does not allow her to falter.
On the Surface, an internationally awarded animated short film, through its protagonist, a black woman who narrates her journey as a mother in a foreign country, is a tribute to the courage and perseverance of the polyphony of Afro-descendant women who have written the future of their peoples.
Kenyan Lydia Matata will be one of the most sighed relatives. As a filmmaker, her realistic narrative allows us to conclude that stereotypes are the sworn enemies of empathy. The insides will feast on introversions that make up the inside of a woman who turns cinema into an educational text that teaches us to put ourselves in the other's shoes.
It will be a real delight to breastfeed with Sungura, a filmic journey into the sexuality of a disabled Afro-descendant woman. Inevitable to feel her in different situations and moments of our biographical journey and to discover that many insides walk with the feet of passion.
From the Afro Bogota that constructs and deconstructs feelings and meanings Marcela Angulo intersectional gaze will not go unnoticed. Her work inside shouts loudly that it is not the same to be black in Buenaventura than in the capital of Colombia. In this difference of contexts and realities, there is a social, historical and cultural richness of great value to breastfeed and empower the Pacific hinterland.
Bogoblack, written and directed by her, is an atypical love story. At the end, the inner selves of its protagonists engage in a soundless but nourishing dialogue with the audience. In that magical moment, the Festival fulfills its purpose: cinema to celebrate life and feel proud of the experiences lived, because they sculpt the spirit.
Fortunately, it already smells like September in the daily life of Quibdó and the prophecy of the oral narrators will come true: the women's relatives will arrive and they will breastfeed the insides.
Mama Quibdó
To meet other directors of African descent and read the full list of QAFF 2022 directors, click here: