A stand-by line will form in the lobby of the Lenfest Center at 6pm. Advance registration has closed but tickets are often still available at the door.
Mati Diop, 2024, 68 minutes | Benin, France, Senegal
Screening followed by a conversation between Writer and Director Mati Diop and producer and faculty member Maureen A. Ryan, Film.
About Dahomey:
“From acclaimed filmmaker Mati Diop, Dahomey is a poetic and immersive work of art that delves into real perspectives on far-reaching issues surrounding appropriation, self-determination and restitution. Set in November 2021, the documentary charts 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey that are due to leave Paris and return to their country of origin: the present-day Republic of Benin. Using multiple perspectives, Diop questions how these artifacts should be received in a country that has reinvented itself in their absence. Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at the 2024 Berlinale, Dahomey is an affecting though altogether singular conversation piece that is as spellbinding as it is essential.”
Mati Diop is a French-Senegalese filmmaker born in Paris in 1982. Since her start as a visual artist in the early 2000s and her leading role in Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum (2008), she has built an eclectic body of work which includes her award-winning short films Atlantiques (2009), Big in Vietnam (2010), Snow Canon (2011), A Thousand Suns (2013), In my room (2020).
With her first feature film Atlantics (2019), winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival followed by Dahomey (2024) awarded by The Golden Bear of Berlinale, (both short listed at the Oscars), she has established herself as one of the leading figures of international auteur cinema and a new wave in African and diasporic cinema. Her political and lyrical cinema challenge the boundaries between genres and formats like a reflection of her mixed identity. With the creation of Fanta Sy, a film house based in Dakar, she pursues her artistic commitment on the African continent.
A related event on Presence and Absence in Museums will be presented by the NYU Institute of French Studies on April 16 - 9.30am to 5pm at La Maison Française de NYU, 16 Washington Mews New York, NY 10003.
Co-presented by Columbia Maison Française and the School of the Arts.
