Seit mehr als zehn Jahren beschäftigt sich die Reihe „Lecture & Film“ über zwei Semester hinweg jeweils mit dem Werk einer bedeutenden Regisseurin oder eines bedeutenden Regisseurs oder einem thematischen Feld. Die aktuelle „Lecture & Film“-Reihe befasst sich mit dem Thema „Black Atlantic Cinema“.

“Sich selbst sehen durch die Augen … einer Nation, die einen mit Verachtung anblickt”: Das ist W.E.B. DuBois‘ Formel für das “doppelte Bewusstsein”, in dem marginale Menschen in Gesellschaften leben, die von Unterdrückung geprägt sind. Unter dem Titel „Black Atlantic Cinema“ stellt die Lecture & Film-Reihe eine filmische Praxis ins Zentrum, die drei Kontinente und die Geschichte von mehreren Jahrhunderten umfasst und den Rahmen einer nationalstaatlichen Betrachtung konsequent hinter sich lässt. In der Reihe nähern sich Wissenschaftler:innen, Kurator:innen und Künstler:innen den vielfältigen Weisen an, in denen Filmkünstler:innen auf die Herausforderung des Lebens im „doppelten Bewusstsein“ antworten, von Afrika über Brasilien und die Karibik bis hin zum (post)kolonialen Europa.

24.7.2025, 20 Uhr/ 8pm:

Awa Konaté (Abu Dhabi / London)
Ruptures Beyond the Frame

This presentation explores the significance of curating Black Atlantic cinema as an essential curatorial praxis of memory work, focusing on its capacity to confront double consciousness and offer alternatives for Black survival. Engaging with W.E.B. Du Bois’ notion of seeing oneself “through the eyes of a nation that looked back in contempt,” the presentation propounds the ways in which curators vis-a-vis filmmakers in the Black Atlantic draw upon the political work of film to rethink today’s globalised world. Moving beyond the restrictive frameworks of the nation-state and national cinemas, the concept of Black Atlantic Cinema provides a transnational lens through which African and diasporic filmmakers articulate histories of displacement, resistance, and world-making across three continents and several centuries. Med Hondo’s Soleil Ô (1970) dramatizes the alienation of African migrants in France, capturing the psychic dissonance of double consciousness within a neocolonial European landscape. Similarly, Martina Attille’s Dreaming Rivers (1988) poetically meditates on migration and diasporic memory, constructing a cinematic language that resists the linearity of national belonging. By curating these films within a Black Atlantic Cinema framework, this presentation argues for a transnational curatorial approach that foregrounds cinema as both a continental and diasporic medium—that not only reveals the fractures of double consciousness, but also generates new modalities of Black being and survival beyond the borders of the nation-state.

Awa Konaté is a curator, art consultant, and founder of the curatorial platform Culture Art Society (CAS). Her curatorial practice draws on archival research, Black feminist pedagogies, and memory work, with a particular interest in interdisciplinarity and lens-based practices of African descendant artists, and their resonance within global contemporary art.

Films:

• Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun) Med Hondo, Mauritania/France 1970, 98 min.
• Dreaming Rivers Martina Judah Attile, UK 1988, 30 min.

Die Veranstaltung findet um 18 Uhr im Kino des DFF statt.

Alle Informationen gibt es auf der Webseite.

The Diskurs Festival, taking place from 6 to 9 November 2025, is an international theater and performance festival that has been organized by students of Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen for over 40 years. Its special feature lies in the combination of theory and practice and is reflected in an interdisciplinary, diverse program.

This year's edition is entitled “Foreshocks” and is dedicated to current social and political upheavals - and their impact on art and culture. The festival will take place in Giessen from November 6 to 9, 2025. We invite artists, collectives, theorists, and activists to join us in exploring how art can emerge and survive in precarious and authoritarian contexts in order to test resistant strategies together.

The festival team is affected by the current budget cuts and is currently still trying to secure funding. Unfortunately, they are therefore unable to provide any binding information on fees. However, it is very important to them to pay for your work fairly and they hope to be able to give you more detailed information on this soon.

The festival thrives on the Institute's strong community (bed exchange, Helping Hands, Küfa) and its DIY charm. As far as possible, they would like to organize the festival as accessible as possible. If you have any questions about this in advance, please contact them!

They are very much looking forward to your submissions!

The Diskurs Festival 2025 team: Hanna Launikovich, Ruby Rawson, Tolja Haß, Yossi Herzka.

Further information about the festivable can be found on the website.