IFRA & Thursday Film Series – Alain Kassanda retrospective

Between the 24^th and 25^th of June,  film director Alain Kassanda visited Ibadan to screen two of his movies in partnership with IFRA-Nigeria and Thursday Film Series. Alain Kassanda is a Congolese French film maker, film director and cinematographer. He is known for his documentary films Trouble Sleep (2020), Colette & Justin (2022), and Coconut Head Generation (2023). He moved to Ibadan in 2015, where he shot his first medium-length film. Kassanda's works have been screened at major film festivals across the globe, including the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the International Film Festival and Form on Human Rights (FIFDH Geneva), the New York African Film Festival or the Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris.

On June 24, COLETTE AND JUSTIN, a poetic and personal documentary examining the intersection of political and family history and colonialism's multi-generational impact was screened. This debut film by Alain Kassanda starts off as a process of self-examination: How well does he really know his grandparents? How true are his ideas about his birth country DR Congo, whose national identity was partly molded by the Belgian colonizers? And, by extension, how much does he know about himself? In Colette et Justin, Kassanda travels through time and his own past, in the process bringing postcolonial Congo to evocative life. He gets his grandfather Justin and grandmother Colette to reflect on their lives, from their youth to their first encounter with a complex political period. The first years following Congo’s independence pass by in the form of a richly layered history that intertwines good and evil, and in which Justin is destined to have an important role. The deep imprints left by colonialism are a constant presence. Kassanda successfully re-casts major political developments in the context of an intimate family film, with lively archive footage, the director’s own enriching memories and curiosity, as well as a poetic voice-over.

On June 25, COCONUT HEAD GENERATION, a documentary that follows the Thursday Film Series (TFS) whic gathers every Thursday evening at the University of Ibadan. TFS is a safe place where students watch and discuss films. In this ciné-club, films are shown to talk about intersectionality, decolonization, feminist struggles, LGBT struggles, the country's ethnic minorities, student rights or elections. A place for these young people, associated with the "Coconut Head Generation", to confront the world and Nigerian society. The students have appropriated this contemptuous expression, which describes youth as lazy and moronic, and have turned it into a strength, asserting their critical intelligence. From heated debates to eloquent speeches, the students learn to situate themselves, mark their differences and think together. The cinema becomes a self-managed place of education where they learn to fight and organize. Initially very interior - the university, the cinema - the film opens up when reality catches up with the filmmaker and the students at work. Alain Kassanda follows the student revolts of October 2020, which erupt against police violence and abuse by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (#EndSARS). As the students watch films by Med Hondo, Mahamat Saleh Haroun or John Akomfrah, they become characters in a film of struggle. The film watches them open up to reality and become the actors and actresses of change. Despite being dismissed by the older generation as "brainless youth," these students showcase their intellect and critical thinking through heated, focused discussions.