Filmmakers have always explored history and retold histories. Namibian filmmakers turn increasingly to colonial pasts with cameras, asking what those pasts mean for the present. This year’s Namibia Research Days put the spotlight on some of the recent productions under the title Cinematic Justice – Film meets Histories of the Present.
From 15 to 17 October, the 12th edition of the Days takes place simultaneously in Windhoek and Basel. The special edition features filmmakers who use cinematic aesthetics to address historical themes and contemporary social justice issues.
Thursday: a love story after the shootings of 1959
Namibian filmmaker Desiree Kahikopo Meiffret opens the film days with her romantic feature The White Line. It tells of the relationship between a Black female domestic servant and a White policeman in the aftermath of the Old Location police shootings in Windhoek in 1959.
Friday: a road trip along the colonial archive
On Friday, Namibian filmmaker Laudika yaNdangii and German film producer Daniela Fritz take us on a self-reflective road trip. It leads to Protestant mission stations and into the archives, and it follows the entanglements of religion and colonialism.
Saturday: critical re-assessments of a violent past
The last day brings together a wide range of critical re-assessments of Namibia’s violent past. In their short films When the World Broke Open and Swakopmund, Desiree Kahikopo Meiffret and Mark Mushiva apply forensic film analysis to the genocides of the German colonial period in the early twentieth century. Telling “our” stories is also central to Caution Colonialism, a short film by German and Namibian filmmakers and activists Ningiree Kauvee, Elisa Erpenbeck and Mara Müller, who trace colonial echoes in the towns of Swakopmund and Göttingen.
A preview of Image Restitution by Laura Horelli, Hildegard Titus and Mwalengwa Hillebrecht explores archives and memory in the context of Namibia’s anti-colonial liberation struggle and of anti-apartheid solidarity activism in East Germany in the 1970s. The day ends with Alexander Honisch’s portrait of one of Namibia’s most prominent anti-colonial personalities, Hendrik Witbooi, with re-enactments by the Gibeon Witbooi community.
The on-site film screenings in Windhoek and Basel are followed by hybrid talks and discussions with filmmakers, critics, and scholars. You can join the Days in either city or online.
Programme, times and participation details are available on our event page. Questions? Contact Dag Henrichsen (dh@baslerafrika.ch).
