The concise 1966 narrative film and candid 2016 documentary kick off the diverse twelve-film festival that runs through Sunday evening in Union South’s Marquee Cinema
Black Girl — 7:00p
Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl opens with an innocently inquisitive voiceover: “Will someone be waiting for me?” when native Senegalese Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) disembarks from a passenger ship. The plain answer is “yes,” as she is then escorted to the high-rise of a French upper-middle class white family to supposedly work as a nurserymaid. Yet, there are no empathetic arms waiting in the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), only the suffering of bourgeois isolation and ennui. This stark and ground-breaking piece of African cinema, newly restored by the Film Foundation, will be widely released on Blu-ray/DVD by Criterion Collection in Jan 2017, but Kate Zellmer and the resourceful WUD Film committee have procured a DCP print two and a half months early as the opening festival presentation that’s FREE and open to the public.
As the introspective lead, Diouana paints a dire portrait through scathing repetition of the building’s doors “shut day and night” where she is treated as an exotic object like the native African mask she offers her employers as a gift. Rather than caring for children as was implied by the “Mistress” (Anne-Marie Jelinek) of the house upon hiring her on the curb in Dakar, Diouana is ordered to exclusively clean and cook ad nauseum. Through the protagonist’s voice, Sembène’s succinctly pointed commentary on national identity and cultural exploitation is surprisingly moving in the desperate diaristic reflections to the camera that transcend any terse interaction with the nameless couple in the apartment. Had either the husband or wife bothered to ask, they may have learned that Diouana is a particularly resolute and dignified woman, who seeks not only her physical but spiritual independence through self-sufficiency. The film eloquently realizes this in a French New Wave-inspired flashback. While strolling the near-empty streets with a handsome male suitor, Diouana is distracted by the realistic opportunities in her future; her eye then catches the fashionable elegance of two women passersby, banishing the starry-eyed potential of courtship.
From the domestic scenes scored with extended passages of native Senegalese music played on a three-stringed xalam, Black Girl carries with it a persistent yearning that magnifies Diouana’s meditations on home and sense of belonging. After being hired to work in France, she is elated at the opportunity and freedom that may finally be available but soon realizes that her 3000 miles of travel have actually contracted her world. “For me, France is the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, and my bedroom.” As if scouring the apartment walls for a way out of this metaphorical-turned-literal prison, Diouana is frequently seen in medium close-up shots silently glancing skyward for an angelic answer or a reprieve from servitude. She summons the courage herself to rebel against demeaning accusations and chores through simply silent resistance, which the imperceptive mistress of the house mistakes for physical malady. The truth really lies in the family’s inability to see Diouana as an equal and to assist her assimilation in not only the house but the surrounding community – Cannes, Nice, and Monte Carlo – that are only witnessed as intangible places from afar. Diouana may speak the same language as her employers, but the silences in Black Girl speak more to theme, one that bears an influence on the films of Chantal Akerman.
Weiner — 9:00p
“We don’t want perverts elected in New York City,” barks a Donald trump soundbite in response to shamed congressman Anthony Weiner’s 2013 re-bid for Mayor. (Nor to lead America.) It’s one shining example of the irony and double standards, both intentional and accidental, that Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg capture or re-contextualize in their eponymous fly-on-the-wall documentary on Weiner’s now infamous comeback campaign. His illicit activities and saga live on, inseparable from Hillary Clinton’s fight for the Presidency, as FBI director James Comey just last week announced an investigation into newly uncovered e-mails reportedly on Weiner’s laptop computer. In the wake of these persistent charges and tabloid fodder, one begins to wonder if this will be the first American political documentary in recent years to receive a proper sequel. (Hold the innuendos.)
In the meantime, it’s essential to contain Kriegman and Steinberg’s framing on the candid, outspoken Weiner and his taciturn wife (Clinton aide/campaign Vice Chairwoman) Huma Abedin. The political personality has been a ripe subject of scrutiny and satire since the days of Citizen Kane, but there’s rarely a whiff of the filmmakers over-dramatizing events here for effect, as Weiner is more than willing to divulge: “The same constitution that I have that made me do the dumb thing made it possible for me to weather the stuff without it gutting me.” This statement is a reflection on the hypocrisy of the media referencing his sexting at a campaign event. In Laurence O’Donnell’s later televised condemnations of Weiner’s behavior (“What is wrong with you?!”), O’Donnell actively fuels the politician’s disapproval rating while at the same time buoying his show’s own ratings, with MSNBC benefiting financially from the sensationalism.
Weiner initially rose to prominence in 2010 for his impassioned retaliations against Republicans blocking healthcare coverage for 9/11 rescue workers. From the repeated airing of these video clips on 24-hour networks (like the aforementioned), the politician became a liberal sensation, which foretold a doomed relationship with the media’s invasion of his private life. So, ultimately, is it personality or commitment to policy that grasps the public at large and potential voters? As Trump’s campaign has sadly proven to the fickle public — conservative, liberal, or otherwise — it’s the interest in self-perpetuating scandal. In this circumstance, the media achieves its intention not by matter-of-fact reporting, but by playing psychiatrist, “diagnosing” disorders, or speculating about Huma’s modest role in the grand scheme of things. From thirteen weeks out until the day of the mayoral election, the co-directors highlight Weiner’s insurmountable task in separating the entangled private and personal affairs, a new reality which has permitted critics to judge policy ideas on matters of personal indiscretion.
An attempt to re-focus and spin his campaign as a defiant act of determination, Anthony Weiner is almost charismatic (and deluded) enough to convince us of an underdog upset. With his numbers lagging late in the campaign/film, he’s advised to hold a City Island townhall, where a concerned citizen says he’s violated their trust. These barbed comments come to a head in Weiner’s encounter with a self-righteous man at a Jewish bakery. The truth is that Weiner did not necessarily violate their convictions; he violated the sanctity of his marriage. But in this new landscape where the political is personal and the private is public, there is a constant necessity to form a defense to deflect and then pivot from these character attacks. Weiner’s emphasis on ideas unfortunately can’t compete with dissenting voices encircling him; but, in recurring allegations of sexual misconduct, maybe that’s for good reason. Regrettably, the film only intermittently looks to Huma, who was rather integral in her (now estranged) husband’s decision to run for office. It also speaks to her polar opposite personality, as her name is obviously divorced from the suggestive title. Beyond the policy jargon, we can hopefully regard this documentary, its fallout, and the conclusion of the 2016 election cycle as sincere reminders of the need to shun toxic masculinity.
- The FREE 12-film Marquee Film Festival runs from Nov 3 through Nov 6 in the Marquee Cinema at Union South (1308 W Dayton St, 2nd Fl). For more information, visit WUD Film’s Facebook event page.