Congolese documentarian Mweze Ngangura visits Melnitz Movies and brings his latest film to be screened.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
James Bridges Theater
Melnitz Hall
UCLA campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Melnitz Movies, the Graduate Students Association, and the African Studies Center present...
YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING IN KINSHASA
Director Mweze Ngangura in person for a Q&A!
Q&A MODERATED BY PROFESSOR TESHOME GABRIEL IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE SCREENING.
About the film:
Capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa is Africa's third largest city and the second sub-Saharan megalopolis. Mweze Ngangura's latest documentary observes the vulnerable communities of people struggling to survive on the fringes of the social system in the Congolese capital. These underground communities, functioning like small independent governments, embody the people's aspirations to social equality, democracy and good governance.
Best Documentary, 2009 Ion Film Festival, Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Co-presented by the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival
About the filmmaker:
Mweze Ngangura studied filmmaking at the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Brussels. From 1976 to 1985, he taught at the Institut Nationale des Arts and the Studio Ecole de la Voix du Zaire in Kinshasa. His 1983 short film Kin-Kiesse was selected as the best documentary at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Africa's largest film festival. La Vie est Belle (1987), his popularly acclaimed debut feature, was also the democratic Republic of Congo’s premier feature and his Pieces d'Identites won the most prestigious award in Africa, the Etalon de Yennega (Grand Prize) at FESPACO in 1999.
"[Ngangura] challenges the representational orthodoxies which hitherto define African cinema and makes a case for a film culture informed by ideas rather than political posturing. This is not surprising if it is noted that his oeuvre relentlessly engages the zones of (ex)change which carry significant value in the analysis of post-colonial cultures. Here, new forms of identities and resistance confront the larger questions and possibilities which constitute the social/political realities of African cinema." -Jude G. Akudinobi, University of California, Santa Barbara [Professor Akudinobi is a valued ASC colleague!]
WRITER and DIRECTOR: Mweze Ngangura
-- In French with English subtitles - 90 minutes
About Melnitz Movies/more info:
- All Melnitz movies are shown at the James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall at UCLA.
- All movies are FREE to UCLA students, staff, faculty and community guests unless otherwise noted.
- Melnitz Movies is funded through the UCLA Graduate Student Association and the ASUCLA Student Interaction Fund.
- Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis (one ticket per person) at the Melnitz box office the day of the screening, one hour before showtime.
- All screenings and appearances are subject to change on short notice, so please check back here on the day of the show!
- Parking costs $10 in lot 3, adjacent to Melnitz Hall. For campus map, directions, transportation options to UCLA, visit www.ucla.edu/map
For more info, contact MELNITZ MOVIES:
Email: melnitz@gsa.asucla.ucla.edu
Website: http://gsa.asucla.ucla.edu/melnitz/
Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23477628957&ref=mf
Cost : Free and open to the public; parking is available for $10 in lot 3; use pay-by-space parking spaces.
Melnitz Movies
Sponsor(s): African Studies Center, Melnitz Movies and the Graduate Students Association.