UNDER THE WHITE MASK:
THE FILM THAT HAESAERTS COULD HAVE MADE
ONDER HET WITTE MASKER: DE FILM DIE HAESAERTS HAD KUNNEN MAKEN
Matthias De Groof • Belgium • 2020 • 9 min. • Short Film / Video Installation
Matthias De Groof
Belgium • 2020 • 9 min.
Short Film / Video Installation
SYNOPSIS
This short film uses fragments of “Under the Black Mask”, a 1958 film about Congolese art directed by the Belgian artist Paul Haesaerts and qualified as colonial propaganda. This new film imagines what the masks, now subjects and not objects, would say.
Aimé Césaire’s “Discourse on Colonialism” is spoken in Lingala for the first time. This speech is still a critical mirror for Europe. “Under the White Mask” is limited to elements already existing in 1958.
TRAILER
FESTIVALS, ALTERNATIVE SCREENINGS & INSTALLATIONS
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom. Belgium (2020)
Sheffield Doc/Fest. UK (2021)
Short Waves Film Festival | Spotlight: Kino Rebelde. Poland (2021)
Afrika Filmfestival. Belgium (2021)
Olhar de Cinema Curitiba International Film Festival. Brazil (2021)
Doclisboa International Film Festival. Portugal (2021)
Arica Nativa Rural Film Festival. Chile (2021)
BREEDBEELD Kortfilmfestival. Belgium (2021)
Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival. Brazil (2021)
BOGOSHORTS Festival. Colombia (2021)
Berlinale International Film Festival • Forum Expanded. Germany (2021-2022) / Installation
Aljube Museum Resistance and Freedom • Temporary Exhibition “(DE) COLONIAL ACT”. Portugal (2022)
Ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival Vienna. Austria (2022)
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. France (2022)
Centre Pompidou | La Cinémathèque du documentaire • “Les statues vivent aussi” Curated by Nora Philippe. France (2022)
Ishango Encounter • Salaam Kivu International Film Festival, Goma. DR Congo (2022)
UAntwerp | Programme Creating Spaces for Anti-Colonial Solidarity. Belgium (2022)
Filmfest Weiterstadt. Germany (2022)
EthnoKino Ethnographic and Documentary Film Program & Festival. Switzerland (2022)
Saigon Experimental Film Festival. Vietnam (2022)
International African Film Festival. Argentina (2022)
Ethnofest Athens Ethnographic Film Festival. Greece (2022)
Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema. Vietnam (2022)
Ciné Club Minzoto | National Museum of the DRC, Kinshasa. DR Congo (2023)
FIFEQ International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec. Canada (2023)
“Cinema for Democracy” Organized by NGO SOS RACISMO. Portugal (2024)
CREDITS
DIRECTOR
Matthias De Groof
SCREENWRITER
Matthias De Groof
PRODUCER
Daniel De Valck (Cobra Films)
Art et Cinema
SOUND DESIGN
Neel Cockx
EDITING
Matthias De Groof
Neel Cockx
VOICE
Maravilha Munto
Text (BASED ON)
Aimé Césaire’s ‘Discours sur le colonialisme’ (Présence africaine, 1955)
FESTIVALS
María Vera (Kino Rebelde)
Produced by
Cobra Films
AVAILABLE ONLINE
Territory: Worldwide