Sarah Maldoror, A Life of Poetry and Struggles

Sarah Maldoror, A Life of Poetry and Struggles

A Film Program curated by François Piron

Sarah Maldoror was a filmmaker whose work remains linked to the fight for independence in several African nations in the 1960s and 1970s, to which she dedicated many of her films. Born in the southern French city of Condom in 1929, she made her first appearance in the Parisian scene in the mid-1950s, already bearing her chosen name of Maldoror, the evil hero of the Chants of Comte de Lautréamont, rediscovered by the Surrealists and quoted by Aimé Césaire in his Discours sur le colonialisme (1950) as "the iron man forged by capitalist society.”

A student at the Sorbonne university, Sarah Maldoror founded Les Griots, the first theatre company of black actresses and actors in France, that will be become nationally famous for staging the play The Blacks by Jean Genet. Yet Maldoror was already elsewhere: in Africa with her companion Mário Pinto de Andrade, in Moscow to study cinema, then in Algiers, Martinique, Saint-Denis...

This program is part of Spring Seminar 2025 Politics of Curatorship.

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Session #1 - From the colonial oppression to the liberation

7 Mai / Auditório Ilídio Pinho / 18:30

Monangambééé
by Sarah Maldoror
Argélia, 1969, 17'

A cultural misunderstanding ends in a tragedy. With little dialogue, Sarah Maldoror's first film lets bodies and music (the free jazz of the Art Ensemble of Chicago) speak for themselves, giving voice to the resistance of the Angolan people against Portuguese colonialism. Monangambeee was the rallying cry for the resistance’s call to arms in the Angola war of independence.

À Bissau, Le Carnaval
by Sarah Maldoror
Guiné Bissau, 1980, 18'

Since Guinea-Bissau gained independence in 1974 after five centuries of Portuguese colonization, people have celebrated the annual carnival in Bissau, the country's capital. The country’s president Luis Cabral explains how they appropriated the popular event as a means of collectively constructing an imaginary world that reversed the relations of colonial domination.

Fogo, Île de Feu
by Sarah Maldoror
Cape Vert, 1979, 34'

On the volcanic island of Fogo, in Cape Verde, the celebration of a legendary story inherited from the Portuguese colonizers continues on May 1st. On this rocky, waterless and wind-battered island, the legend gives rise to jousts in tournaments and horse races appreciated by the locals.

Session #2

8 Mai / Cinema Trindade

Sambizanga
by Sarah Maldoror
Angola, France, 1973, 102'

Domingos Xavier, an Angolan worker and anti colonial activist, is arrested by the Portuguese secret police and taken to prison in the capital, Luanda. Determined to find her husband, Maria leaves the village with her baby on her back, aided in her quest by men and women sympathetic to her story and Domingos' cause...

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Image Retrouvée (Paris) from the 35mm original negatives, in association with Éditions René Chateau and the family of Sarah Maldoror. Funding provided by Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema

Session #3 - A Caribbean literary Heritage

9 Mai / Auditório Ilídio Pinho / 18:30

Aimé Césaire, Un Homme Une Terre
by Sarah Maldoror
Martinique, 1976, 57'

Alternating interview sequences, shots of Martinique landscapes and scenes from Aimé Césaire’ play La Tragédie du roi Christophe [The Tragedy of King Christophe](1963), Sarah Maldoror paints a portrait of her friend Césaire, poet, politician and founder of the Négritude movement.

René Depestre, Poète Haïtien
by Sarah Maldoror
France, 1981, 5'

Short documentary about René Depestre, poet and former communist activist, one of the most important figures in Haitian literature.

Toto Bissainthe
by Sarah Maldoror
France, 1984, 4'

Portrait of the Haitian singer and friend of Sarah Maldoror, Toto Bissainthe, at one of her concerts.

Léon G. Damas
by Sarah Maldoror
France, Guiana Francesa 1994, 25'

Portrait of Guyanese poet and politician Léon-Gontran Damas, as he drifts between landscapes and rivers, from Cayenne to Paris. His peers (Césaire, Senghor) testify to the poetic force of one of the founders of Négritude. But when Sarah Maldoror asks young girls about the Guyanese poets they know, their lack of knowledge indicates the violence of the colonial imaginary.

More Information

Session #1 - From the colonial oppression to the liberation

7 Mai / Auditório Ilídio Pinho / 18:30

Monangambééé
by Sarah Maldoror
Argélia, 1969, 17'

A cultural misunderstanding ends in a tragedy. With little dialogue, Sarah Maldoror's first film lets bodies and music (the free jazz of the Art Ensemble of Chicago) speak for themselves, giving voice to the resistance of the Angolan people against Portuguese colonialism. Monangambeee was the rallying cry for the resistance’s call to arms in the Angola war of independence.

À Bissau, Le Carnaval
by Sarah Maldoror
Guiné Bissau, 1980, 18'

Since Guinea-Bissau gained independence in 1974 after five centuries of Portuguese colonization, people have celebrated the annual carnival in Bissau, the country's capital. The country’s president Luis Cabral explains how they appropriated the popular event as a means of collectively constructing an imaginary world that reversed the relations of colonial domination.

Fogo, Île de Feu
by Sarah Maldoror
Cape Vert, 1979, 34'

On the volcanic island of Fogo, in Cape Verde, the celebration of a legendary story inherited from the Portuguese colonizers continues on May 1st. On this rocky, waterless and wind-battered island, the legend gives rise to jousts in tournaments and horse races appreciated by the locals.

Session #2

8 Mai / Cinema Trindade

Sambizanga
by Sarah Maldoror
Angola, France, 1973, 102'

Domingos Xavier, an Angolan worker and anti colonial activist, is arrested by the Portuguese secret police and taken to prison in the capital, Luanda. Determined to find her husband, Maria leaves the village with her baby on her back, aided in her quest by men and women sympathetic to her story and Domingos' cause...

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’Image Retrouvée (Paris) from the 35mm original negatives, in association with Éditions René Chateau and the family of Sarah Maldoror. Funding provided by Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the FEPACI and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore and disseminate African cinema

Session #3 - A Caribbean literary Heritage

9 Mai / Auditório Ilídio Pinho / 18:30

Aimé Césaire, Un Homme Une Terre
by Sarah Maldoror
Martinique, 1976, 57'

Alternating interview sequences, shots of Martinique landscapes and scenes from Aimé Césaire’ play La Tragédie du roi Christophe [The Tragedy of King Christophe](1963), Sarah Maldoror paints a portrait of her friend Césaire, poet, politician and founder of the Négritude movement.

René Depestre, Poète Haïtien
by Sarah Maldoror
France, 1981, 5'

Short documentary about René Depestre, poet and former communist activist, one of the most important figures in Haitian literature.

Toto Bissainthe
by Sarah Maldoror
France, 1984, 4'

Portrait of the Haitian singer and friend of Sarah Maldoror, Toto Bissainthe, at one of her concerts.

Léon G. Damas
by Sarah Maldoror
France, Guiana Francesa 1994, 25'

Portrait of Guyanese poet and politician Léon-Gontran Damas, as he drifts between landscapes and rivers, from Cayenne to Paris. His peers (Césaire, Senghor) testify to the poetic force of one of the founders of Négritude. But when Sarah Maldoror asks young girls about the Guyanese poets they know, their lack of knowledge indicates the violence of the colonial imaginary.