De-Opacification and the Right to Opacity

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De-Opacification and the Right to Opacity

Frantz Fanon Édouard Glissant Seminar | 08.11.2019 | 11am/ 2pm Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar, 148-3º D 1050-021 Lisbon Manthia Diawara LUMIAR DE-OPACIFICATION CITÉ AND THE RIGHT TO OPACITY Manthia Diawara was born in Mali, West Africa. Manthia Diawara will focus on de-opacification He is a distinguished Professor of Comparative and the right to opacity of human emancipation, Literature and Film at New York University. Diawara as defined by Frantz Fanon and Édouard was educated in Guinea-Conakry, Bamako (Mali) Glissant respectively. What did Fanon mean and Paris (France), before migrating to the United by this notion of de-opacification, as a tool States to pursue his studies. Manthia Diawara is a prolific writer and filmmaker. His essays on art, of the liberation struggle and decolonisation? cinema and politics have appeared in The New Is Glissant’s demand for the right to opacity, Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart which guarantees the survival of human and and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed non-human diversity, a response to Fanon and memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University other thinkers’ over-reliance on a philosophy Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in of existentialist dialectics? the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema. Diawara’s notable films include: An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Registration is free, but limited to the number of seats available. Soyinka and Senghor (2016), Édouard Glissant, Please send an email with a short CV to [email protected] One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale until 06.11.2019. Confirmation of registration will be sent by (2008) and Rouch In Reverse (1995). email. The seminar will be in English. For further information, please contact: Tel + 351 21 352 11 55, [email protected] www.maumaus.org Collaboration: Lumiar Cité / Maumaus is funded by: Supported by: de appel .

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An Opera of the World
AN OPERA OF THE WORLD A film by Manthia Diawara Year: 2017 Format: Video Running Time: 70 min Produced by Maumaus / Lumiar Cité, with core funding from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, ZDF/3sat, Portuguese Ministry of Culture/Directorate-General for Arts and documenta 14. Production countries: Portugal, USA, Mali Director: Manthia Diawara Producer: Jürgen Bock Editor: Kenan Akkawi Film title in other languages: Eine Oper der Welt Μια Όπερα του Κόσμου (Mia Opera tou Kosmou) Un Opéra du Monde Uma Ópera do Mundo REVIEWS “Manthia Diawara's film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Malian filmmaker's own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies on the Mediterranean Sea. Diawara's film features contemporary philosophers and employs footage of refugees in exodus, probing cinema's power to bear witness.” National Gallery of Art, Washington DC “Wandering the shores of Lesbos, Diawara poses questions in the face of the sea, its myths, and media footage of mass migration… A Sahel Opera becomes a world opera, tragic in its tradition of the genre, but far from a dead end. Might we consider it moving in search of a better death?” Monika Szewczyk, Documenta 14 SYNOPSIS Short Synopsis: Manthia Diawara’s film is based on the African opera Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera, which recounts an eternal migration drama. The Bintou Were opera, filmed on location in Bamako, in 2007, serves as a mirror for Diawara to build an aesthetic and reflexive story, through song and dance, about the current and yet timeless drama of migration between North and South, and the ongoing refugee crises.
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Manthia Diawara
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