Mizna Film Series Winter 2021: Restored Classics

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Mizna News

February 4, 2021

Mizna Film Series Winter 2021: Restored Classics

by Lamia Abukhadra | in Film

The Mizna Film Series is a monthly selection of programs, marking our first venture into year-round curated film programming. While our annual Film Fest focuses primarily on the works of contemporary artists, the Mizna Film Series provides a space to expand our regular film programming to include screenings, critical essays, filmmaker interviews, and discussions exploring revolutionary forms of cinema from the SWANA region and beyond. This series is presented virtually and in-person in collaboration with Trylon Cinema. Learn more about the Mizna Film Series here.

For the first screenings, we highlight recently restored SWANA classics. Film histories too often exclusively highlight the works of Hollywood filmmakers and European auteurs, and these limited histories are maintained through practices of film preservation and restoration. But organizations like Cineteca di Bologna and Janus Films are part of a movement to restore, digitize, distribute, and exhibit films that expand our understanding and vision of cinema’s past.

We are proud to present two recently restored SWANA classics to kick off Mizna’s new monthly film series, starting with Soleil Ô (dir. Med Hondo, 1970), a Mauritanian Third Cinema classic. Stay tuned for the announcement of the second film in our winter series, coming to the Trylon and your home cinema March 24–28, 2021.

February 24–28, 2021
Soleil Ô by Med Hondo

Soleil Ô (1970), a bitterly funny, stylistically explosive attack on Western capitalism and colonialism, follows a starry-eyed immigrant as he leaves West Africa for Paris in search of a job and cultural enrichment. He soon discovers a hostile society in which his very presence elicits fear and resentment. Hondo deploys an array of narrative and stylistic techniques—animation, docudrama, dream sequences, musical numbers, folklore, slapstick comedy, agitprop—to create a landmark of political cinema.

Soleil Ô is available virtually February 25–28, 2021. In-person screening of Soleil Ô takes place on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 7pm.

Tickets

Read Soleil Ô and a Transnational Third Cinema by Ahmed AbdulMageed

February Film Chats

Mizna presents two casual discussions in English and Arabic on the film Soleil Ô with Mohamed Farah. Film chats are open to anyone interested in a critical discussion on the forms and themes in the film, no prior cinema knowledge required!