SPELL REEL

The hero of the decolonization of Guinea and Cape Verde, Amílcar Cabral, assassinated in 1973,believed film to be an essential part of the liberation movement. Under his influence, Guinean revolutionaries trained in Cuba spent the 1970s documenting a decade of independence. Tragically, most of their footage has since been lost. But when some of the footage resurfaced in 2011, Chris Marker protégé Filipa César, in collaboration with two of the original filmmakers, Sana Na N’hada and Flora Gomes, suggested screening the old material everywhere from the villages of Guinea-Bissau to European capitals. Spell Reel is a combination of archival footage and people’s reactions to it, inviting us to engage in a fascinating reflection on film as a tool of resistance.