African Futurism: The World of Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Film, Talk
Naked Reality by Jean-Pierre Bekolo
In-person: Q&A with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo, moderated by Shelleen Greene, associate professor, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
May 11, 2024 – 7:30 pm – Double Feature
The Bloodettes (Les Saignantes)
Jean-Pierre Bekolo has described this futuristic action-horror fusion as a “trance object” and it’s possible to experience his lo-fi world building through precisely orchestrated music cues, bold visual compositions and ethereal voiceover as a form of incantation.
Whipsmart and wildly entertaining, Bloodettes mobilizes myth and genre to satirize patriarchy, masculine posing and political corruption.
Naked Reality
150 years in the future, Wanita (Weza Da Silva) is a young African media professional who becomes aware of a race of immortal beings who secretly control reality after she herself becomes dislodged from the linear flow of time. The title of Bekolo’s vivid experimental feature reflects Wanita’s galvanizing revelation as well as his larger meta-commentary on the media’s production of meaning and images of Africa, specifically.
May 12, 2024 – 7:00 pm – Double Feature
Quartier Mozart
Domestic discord is inevitable when a police chief brings home a second wife but it’s nothing compared to the delirious trouble that results when his daughter falls in love with a newcomer in town who’s actually a woman living as a man with help from a witch. Around this already intriguing central storyline, Jean-Pierre Bekolo crafts a playful, loving portrait of the quirky and complicated residents of a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé in his internationally acclaimed debut feature.
Aristotle’s Plot
The first African film to screen at Sundance, Bekolo’s second feature was commissioned by the British Film Institute as part of a project to mark cinema’s centennial. The only African filmmaker invited to participate, Bekolo challenges the Institute’s motives — ”Was this an act of Christian charity or political correctness” — before launching a full tilt, satiric interrogation of the colonialist framing of Africa and African cinema.
Admission is free!
African Futurism: The World of Jean-Pierre Bekolo | UCLA Film & Television Archive