SUR LES TRACES DE FRANTZ FANON (IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FRANTZ FANON)
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‘As a doctor, he knew human suffering. As a psychiatrist, he observed the impact on the human mind of traumatic events. Above all, as a colonial man he felt and understood what it was to be born and live in a colonial situation.’ Mehdi Lallaoui’s documentary begins with these words by Aimé Césaire and historical footage of Frantz Fanon’s funeral in 1961. It also includes perspectives from companions of the freedom fighter and theorist Fanon, including his assistant Marie-Jeanne Manuellan, his biographer Alice Cherki, who campaigned alongside him for the revolutionisation of psychiatry in North Africa, and historian Jean Khalfa. Their testimonies attest to Fanon’s lasting importance in the struggle against colonialism and racism and ‘for a global humanism’.
A workshop after the film screening will give you the opportunity to discuss Fanon’s relevance at the time of the Black Lives Matter movement with Mehdi Lallaoui and Fatima Sissani.
SUR LES TRACES DE FRANTZ FANON (IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FRANTZ FANON) Direction: Mehdi Lallaoui, digital, OF m. engl. UT, 93 min
Guests
Mehdi Lallaoui is a French-Algerian writer and filmmaker who has directed nearly 50 documentaries. His work centres around the themes of migration, the history of the labour movement and colonial history. He is the author of five novels, three volumes of poetry as well as over a dozen works of non-fiction, which mainly focus on the situation of Algerian immigrants in France. The film LES MASSACRES DE SÉTIF, UN CERTAIN 8. MAI 1945 about French colonial crimes in Algeria was presented by FilmInitiativ in Cologne and Wuppertal on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. His new film SUR LES TRACES DE FRANTZ FANON will have its German premiere at this year’s festival and provides a good basis for discussing the current relevance of the anti-colonial ideas propagated by Fanon, who was a theorist and freedom fighter.
Fatima Sissani was born in Algeria and has lived in France since she was six. After studying law, she opted for a career in journalism. She has produced interviews and reportages for the independent radio station Radio Zinzine as well as portraits and documentaries for the France Culture radio channel. She also worked for a city magazine during this time. In 2011 she shot her first documentary LA LANGUE DE ZAHRA which explicates the importance of the Berber language in the Kabylie region and in migration. She has already been our guest at various festivals in Cologne. This year, we are glad to have her as patron of the festival. She will present the film screening and the workshop about Frantz Fanon and the documentary NARDJES A. Her film LES GRACIEUSES (2014) will be screened in our online program.
A workshop after the film screening will give you the opportunity to discuss Fanon’s relevance at the time of the Black Lives Matter movement with Mehdi Lallaoui and Fatima Sissani.