Cinema as an alternative to the Museum

_{Cinema as an alternative to the Museum. 2020}
_{(23 minutes)}

_{This video essay is an exploration of how the tool of storytelling, through the collapse of the space-time continuum in cinema, visual culture and music can make us reconsider common cultural links across Black narratives; as well as questioning the line between reality and fiction. This analysis shows that there is a commonality to our practice and approach to space and time regardless of language and location, and that reality and fiction are none but the same. This is achieved through the analysis of four movies that show in the interwoven links between these stories the recurrence of a struggle for liberation and the vital importance of storytelling: Touki Bouki (Journey of the Hyena, 1973) directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, Atlantics (2019) directed by Mati Diop, and Night of the Kings (2020) directed by Philippe Lacote.

“The Last Angel of History” (1996) directed by John Akomfrah is used as a connecting link, as narration between the other movies. It is focused on an analysis of Afrofuturism, music and time via the journey of the main character who interviews different people in an attempt to show the alien nature of the Black experience.

The aim of this essay is to propose a different way of historicising cultures, one that is more derived from the African oral tradition, and that also celebrates the multiplicity of voices rather than attempting to impose singular, homogenising narratives.}