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West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty

April 18 @ 8:00 pm

Playing in the CCA Cinema

April 12-18: Playing daily at 1:00pm, 3:30pm, 8:00pm (no screenings Monday and Tuesday)

In 1979, Mauritanian French director Med Hondo’s West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty proved a watershed event for African cinema—the continent’s first musical as well as a sui generis amalgam of historical epic, Broadway revue, Brechtian theater, and joyous agitprop. Using an enormous mock slave ship as the film’s only soundstage, Hondo mounts intricately choreographed reenactments and dance numbers across his multipurpose set to investigate more than three centuries of imperialist oppression.

The story traverses the West Indies, Europe, and the Middle Passage; jumps across time to depict the effects of official French policy upon the colonized, the enslaved, and their descendants; and surveys the actions and motivations of the resigned, the revolutionary, and the powers that be (along with their lackeys). No mere extravaganza, West Indies is a call to arms for a spectacular yet critical cinematic reimagining of an entire people’s history of resistance and struggle.

Director: Med Hondo
Writers: Daniel Boukman, Med Hondo
Composer: Georges Rabol
Features: Cyril Aventurin, Fernand Berset, Roland Bertin
Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.
 
Film: Drama, Musical
Language: French [English subtitles]

$13

Note: Tickets are only $3.00 for EBT cardholders

1050 Old Pecos Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87505 United States
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(505) 982-1338
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