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Hosted in partnership with Upstate Films of Woodstock and Rhinebeck

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Join two leading authorities on the work of Ousmane Sembène, “the father of African cinema,” in a discussion of Mandabi (1968), considered by many African artists and scholars to be the most influential African film. Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman participated in the restoration efforts of the film.

Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman

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Mandabi is now playing on the TSL Virtual Cinema.

Stream the film here.

And! Sembène’s 2001 film Faat Kiné is available on DVD to borrow from the TSL Lending Library. Learn more here.

Mandabi (1968): New 4k Restoration! This second feature by Ousmane Sembène was the first movie ever made in the Wolof language – a major step toward the realization of the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker’s dream of creating a cinema by, about, and for Africans. After jobless Ibrahima Dieng receives a money order for 25,000 francs from a nephew who works in Paris, news of his windfall quickly spreads among his neighbors, who flock to him for loans even as he finds his attempts to cash the order stymied in a maze of bureaucracy, and new troubles rain down on his head. One of Sembène’s most coruscatingly funny and indignant films, Mandabi – an adaptation of a novella by the director himself – is a bitterly ironic depiction of a society scarred by colonialism and plagued by corruption, greed, and poverty. Narrative film. In Wolof and French with subtitles. 1968. 1h31m. View the trailer here.

Samba Gadjigo, the world’s leading authority on Ousmane Sembène, is Helen Day Gould Professor of French at Mount Holyoke College, and co-writer/director/producer of the feature documentary Semebene!, which premiered at Sundance and Cannes and was named one of New York magazine’s top ten films of 2015. His books include Ousmane Sembène: The Making of a Militant Artist, and the forthcoming Sembene: Rebel With a Camera (with Jason Silverman). 

Jason Silverman, recently named co-Executive Director of Upstate Films, is co-writer/director/producer of Semebene!, former Cinematheque Director at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, former Artistic Director at Taos Talking Picture, co-founder and former co-director of the Native Cinema Showcase, and a writer, curator and producer who has worked with artists including Taika Waititi, Laurie Anderson, John Sayles ,and Peter Sellars and institutions including the Smithsonian, American Film Institute, Telluride Film Festival, and Tribeca Film Institute.

The Sembene Project, founded by Jason and Samba, leads the efforts to rescue the works of Ousmane Sembène and other African storytellers and connect them to the broadest possible audiences in Africa and the Diaspora. Their projects include helping launch a full restoration of Sembène’s feature films, with the Film Foundation, Criterion Collection,  and StudioCanal; Sembene Across Africa, an annual continent-wide screening series; and the preservation of Sembene’s archives.