Manthia Diawara
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom, 2023
Still: Courtesy of the artist and Lumiar Cité / Maumaus, Lisbon
Commissions
Single-channel installation, color sound
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation with major funding from the Mellon Foundation, co-commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary with the support of Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation, Lisbon, and Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts. Produced by Lumiar Cité / Maumaus, Lisbon.
Manthia Diawara's new film Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom reflects on the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. Diawara's camera follows Davis as she walks through a forest of giant sequoias, works in the garden or walks her dog, while reflecting on myriad issues, including ideas of freedom, resistance, rebellion, remaking our world, political blackness, radical black thought, music, (inter)nationalism, (Global South) feminism, abolition, the industrial prison complex, generational shifts, dialectics, contradiction, Africa, sexuality, desire and also friendship.
The film is neither a biography nor a fictional narrative. Instead, Diawara's footage, which is interspersed with relevant archival material, presents itself as a poetic compendium of Davis’s critical thinking and an inspiration for new imaginaries and new relations within an emergent new world.
Director: Manthia Diawara
Producer: Jürgen Bock
Assistant Producer: Carlos Alberto Carrilho
Camera: Jackson Kroopf, Desta Wondirad
Sound: Jackson Kroopf
Set photography: Deana Lawson
Editing: Mohamed Almubarak
Post-production: teneighty studio
Accounting: Márcia Carvalho (Droles)
Manthia Diawara was born in Mali, West Africa. He is a distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at New York University.
Manthia Diawara is a prolific writer and film-maker. His essays on art, cinema and politics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema.
Diawara’s notable films include: AI: African Intelligence (2022), A Letter from Yene (2022), An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2015), Édouard Glissant, One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008) and Rouch in Reverse (1995). His films have been presented at festivals, biennials and a wide range of exhibition venues, including the Bienal de São Paulo, Biennale de Dakar, Biennale de Lubumbashi, Centre Pompidou, documenta, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Lumiar Cité, Museu de Serralves, HKW-Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Manifesta, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and Serpentine Galleries.
Maumaus/Lumiar Cité is the producer and worldwide distributor, except North America, of Manthia's Diawara's films.
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation with major funding from the Mellon Foundation, co-commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary with the support of Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation, Lisbon, and Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts. Produced by Lumiar Cité / Maumaus, Lisbon.
Manthia Diawara's new film Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom reflects on the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. Diawara's camera follows Davis as she walks through a forest of giant sequoias, works in the garden or walks her dog, while reflecting on myriad issues, including ideas of freedom, resistance, rebellion, remaking our world, political blackness, radical black thought, music, (inter)nationalism, (Global South) feminism, abolition, the industrial prison complex, generational shifts, dialectics, contradiction, Africa, sexuality, desire and also friendship.
The film is neither a biography nor a fictional narrative. Instead, Diawara's footage, which is interspersed with relevant archival material, presents itself as a poetic compendium of Davis’s critical thinking and an inspiration for new imaginaries and new relations within an emergent new world.
Director: Manthia Diawara
Producer: Jürgen Bock
Assistant Producer: Carlos Alberto Carrilho
Camera: Jackson Kroopf, Desta Wondirad
Sound: Jackson Kroopf
Set photography: Deana Lawson
Editing: Mohamed Almubarak
Post-production: teneighty studio
Accounting: Márcia Carvalho (Droles)
Manthia Diawara was born in Mali, West Africa. He is a distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at New York University.
Manthia Diawara is a prolific writer and film-maker. His essays on art, cinema and politics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema.
Diawara’s notable films include: AI: African Intelligence (2022), A Letter from Yene (2022), An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2015), Édouard Glissant, One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008) and Rouch in Reverse (1995). His films have been presented at festivals, biennials and a wide range of exhibition venues, including the Bienal de São Paulo, Biennale de Dakar, Biennale de Lubumbashi, Centre Pompidou, documenta, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Lumiar Cité, Museu de Serralves, HKW-Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Manifesta, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and Serpentine Galleries.
Maumaus/Lumiar Cité is the producer and worldwide distributor, except North America, of Manthia's Diawara's films.