Annual theme "Human after Man"

Interdisciplinary Lecture Series (WS 2018/19)

30 October 2018, 7:00 pm

Afrofuturistic Visions of the Human

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Jean-Pierre Bekolo (with excerpts from his movies "Les Saignantes", 2005 and "Naked Reality", 2016)

Jean-Pierre Bekolo is an avant-garde filmmaker whose imaginative work overturns stereotypes of Africa and African cinema. His films operate on multiple layers, engaging viewers with thrilling stories, biting humour and dramatic aesthetics. Bekolo was born in Yaoundé, studied physics at the University of Yaoundé as well as television production (editing) and semiotics under Christian Metz at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) in Paris.

Bekolo has taught film at Virginia Tech, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Duke University. His films have been screened internationally and he has won numerous awards. Among his recent works are the documentary Les Choses et Les Mots de Mudimbe (2015) on the renowned Congolese philosopher and multi-linguist Valentin-Yves Mudimbe (part of the official selection of the 2015 Berlinale), the controversial fake documentary film Le President (2015 AMAA Awards Best screenplay and Jury Special Prize) which was banned in Cameroon, and the TV Drama series Our Wishes (2017), an African perspective on the first encounter between Cameroonian chiefs and the Germans just before the Berlin conference of 1884. In 2017, his film Les Saignantes (2015) was selected by the MOMA New York among the 70 classics of science-fiction.