BAMcinématek Presents: Kongo: 50 Years Of Independence Of Congo

Part of the BAMcinématek series FilmAfrica and DanceAfrica 2012

Sun, May 27, 2012 at 5pm
Q&A with director Daniel Cattier

(2010) 156min, Digital, Belgium & Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kongo is a documentary series in three episodes that examine the colonization of the Congo, the largest country in Central Africa whose destiny was out of the ordinary. Using the latest methods of docudrama filmmaking, Kongo draws on the region’s historiography to offers an original and new perspective. In French and Lingala with English subtitles.

Episode 1: The Unbridled Race

Directed by Samuel Tilman

(2010) 52min

Through the eyes of French, Portuguese, Belgian, and African pioneers, this introductory episode retraces the first major phases of the Congo’s colonial occupation. From the Portuguese arrival in the XVI Century until the XIX Century, at height of King Leopold II’s sovereign kingdom, and from the slave trade to the rubber trade, this episode delves into the inner-workings of this bloody conquest, as described by insider witnesses. 

Episode 2: The Great Illusion

Directed by Daniel Cattier

(2010) 52min

In 1908, under sharp criticism, Leopold II reluctantly ceded the Congolese Independent State to Belgium. Over the course of the next 50 years, both colonists and indigenes, each on opposite sides, built the Congolese “nation.” This second episode examines the European and African historical figures, sometimes unknown, who shaped history through their ideas and actions. Each figure tells his or her experience of the events that shaped a significant chapter of 20th-century history. 

Episode 3: The Failed Giant

Directed by Jean-François Bastin and Isabelle Christiaens

(2010) 52min

Patrick Emery Lumumba, the Congo’s first prime minister, was assassinated during the turbulent times of the independence movement. He is the voice of this third episode. An ephemeral yet immortal hero, he passionately tells the story of his country’s history from 1960 to 2010, from Joseph Kasa-Vubu to the United Nations at the Monuc. This last episode describes the challenges of building a nation upon the rubble left behind by colonial alienation.