TRACES OF THE UNKNOWN brings together films addressing the human condition through stories and mysterious occurrences connected to spirits and gods derived from West African and Afro-caribbean diasporic religions. Featuring Djibril Diop Mambety’s Le Franc (1994) and Kaveh Nabatian’s Sin La Habana(2020) and Kite Zo A (2023), the filmmakers present narratives rooted in temporal realities and contexts, revealing cycles as well as contemporary incarnations of the human experience. Each film reflects different aspects of the socio-economic and political struggles faced by millions around the world due to the ongoing legacies of colonial subjugation. A focus of music and dance is a thread that further connects these works, setting the stage for a stimulating visual, sonic and somatic experience for viewers.
Mambety’s Le Franc is among the filmmaker’s last films before his untimely passing. The first film in his uncompleted Trilogy, Contes des Petites Gens (Tales of the Little People), Le Franc is set at the backdrop of the French government’s 50% devaluation of the West African Franc (CFA) in 1994 which caused widespread inflation and devastation for citizens of the region. For many, winning the national lottery became their last hope for survival. The film tells the story of Marigo, an impoverished musician living in a shantytown who has lost his congoma instrument to his landlady as compensation for back rent. After buying a lottery ticket from Kus, the god of fortune, he glues it to the back of his door under a poster of his hero, Yaadikoone Ndiaye, an iconic 1950s bandit memorialized as the Senegalese Robin Hood. Marigo’s journey following his winning ticket is both comical and arduous, reflecting both the absurdity and calamity of the global economic orders that disenfranchised communities are forced to exist within.
In Nabatian’s Sin La Habana, the protagonist, Leonardo, the star ballet dancer in his prestigious dance company, and his partner, Sara, a lawyer, are trying to escape Havana by any means. Over six decades of U.S. sanctions have eroded Cuban national infrastructures and compelled the society to live under strenuous conditions of food instability and extremely limited prospects. Nabatian based each character on Orishas, divine spirits derived from the Yoruba religion in West Africa and part of Afro-caribbean religions, including Santeria in Cuba. When the couple’s initial plan to seek asylum while Leonardo is traveling on tour derails, they decide that he will seduce Nasim, a recently divorced Iranian-Canadian tourist, emigrate with her and bring over Sara afterwards. What initially appears to be a meeting of two deeply opposing cultures–Cuba and Iran–slowly unfolds into a revelation of reconciled values, underlying shared political experiences, and unexpected cultural and spiritual parallels.
Nabatian’s most recent film, Kite Zo A (Leave the Bones) is a poetic documentary exploring the ritual beliefs and practices in Haiti. Under French occupation, Saint Domingue (Haiti) became the most lucrative colony on earth due to the wealth generated by enslaved persons forcibly working on sugar and tobacco plantations. In 1791, a Voodoo ritual set the stage for a mass uprising against slavery and occupation that lasted until 1804. While the world bore witness to the birth of the first Black independent republic, the country’s chance at prosperity was soon doomed because of exorbitant and extortionist reparations it was forced to pay to former French slave and plantation owners. Repeatedly pressured to take out crushing loans from French banks, the Haitian government fell into a deep cycle of debt until 1947 which haunts the remnants of its economy today. The reparations came at the expense of Haitian governments investing in education, health care and public infrastructure, and furthermore directly impacted the ongoing political instability of the island. Kite Zo A is a visual and sonic documentation of ancient and modern Haitian cultural traditions that directly address injustice, poverty and natural disasters. The history of the country’s independence and enduring resistance are told through oral storytelling, dance, spoken word and song. Parades and group rituals reveal an electrifying culture of celebration deeply embedded in spiritual practice. Incorporating the poetry of Wood-Jerry Gabriel and music by Lakou Mizik group and Joseph Ray, the film was made in collaboration with dancers, musicians, fishermen, daredevil rollerbladers, and Voodoo priests.
TRACES OF THE UNKNOWN is curated by Lila Nazemian, Programs and Communications Director at ArteEast, and is co-presented by ArteEast and UnionDocs. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. Selections from the program will be screened in-person at UnionDocs on Thursday, July 18 followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Kaveh Nabatian. For information about the screening on July 18, visit uniondocs.org. The full program will be screened online on artearchive.org from July 18 – 28.
