A Med Hondo Study Day

KCL Global Cultures Institute

BFI African Odysseys in partnership with Queen Mary University of London present 'A Med Hondo Study Day'

Saturday 20 January, 2024

12.30 – 15.30: King’s College London, Bush House Lecture Theatre 2

16.30 – 19.15: BFI Southbank, NFT3

This dual-venue event, staged at King’s College London (KCL) and BFI Southbank, explores the work of Mauritanian-born filmmaker Med Hondo, one of the great chroniclers of the African diaspora. Hondo’s militant films directly intervened in ongoing migrant struggles, while contributing to the creation of African cinema, both on the continent and abroad. In his 1973 film manifesto Les Bicots-nègres vos voisins, Hondo asked, “What is cinema for us: the underdeveloped, the wageless, the disposable?” The practice he developed in response stands as a model for radical migrant and diasporic filmmaking today.

Programme

Part 1: 12.30 – 15.30: King’s College London, Bush House Lecture Theatre 2

Staged as part of the KCL Global Cultures Institute series Unhoused Archives: Reparation, Restitution and Diasporic Film Heritage, the day opens with two scene-setting panels exploring Hondo’s diverse oeuvre – ranging from small-gauge agitprop to wide-screen epics. Hondo’s films are set in the broader context of his practice, including as an activist and organiser (for instance, with the Committee of African Filmmakers) and as a distributor of films by fellow African and diasporic filmmakers.

Archivist Annabelle Aventurin (formerly of Ciné-Archives Paris, which holds Hondo’s estate) presents her work restoring Hondo’s films and recovering the collective memory of his exemplary struggle as an African filmmaker in Paris. As part of her presentation, Annabelle will screen a recently completed short film documenting the making of Hondo’s 1979 masterpiece West Indies, based on rushes for an unfinished work found in the archive. The presentation and screening is followed by a Q&A moderated by Rosalind Galt (KCL). In Panel 2, filmmaker and scholar Imruh Bakari (University of Winchester) joins Hondo’s close collaborator, the poet and playwright Abdoul War, for a wide-ranging conversation about the historical contexts of Hondo’s work, highlighting the collective ferment that grounded his practice.

Part 2: 16.30 – 19.15: BFI Southbank, NFT3

At 15.30, we move across the river to the BFI for refreshments and an afternoon screening of Med Hondo’s West Indies as part of the African Odysseys programme series. After the screening, film programmers Jonathan Ali (Third Horizon Film Festival) and Abiba Coulibaly (Brixton Community Cinema) will be in conversation with artist and curator Rabz Lansiquot (Languid Hands), to explore the relevance of Hondo’s practice for diasporic cultural production today.

The study day is organised by Annabelle Aventurin and Nikolaus Perneczky (Queen Mary University of London) in collaboration with Erica Carter (KCL) and hosted by the KCL Global Cultures Institute.

Please book separately for Part 1 and 2.

Part 1: King’s College London, Bush House Lecture Theatre 2. Admission free. Book on the right hand side of this page. 

Part 2: BFI Southbank, NFT 3. Tickets £6.50. Book here.