From our vantage in the US today, we’re not just unaware of the history of african film, we’re unequipped — it’s hard to find documents that go beyond the surface level facts, and in many cases, even the films themselves have only recently been restored and widely released. Ousmane Sembène later in life said that even he did not know where many of his film’s original prints or negatives were. Would we be watching this film for the pod today if not for a restoration by the Scorsese-led World Cinema Project and a home release by Criterion?

It’s also hard to gauge the immediate impact of Sembène’s Black Girl, a film that breaks new ground in a way that few films ever have, because it may have screened mostly to relatively privileged audiences. Large portions of Senegal then could not understand French or read subtitles. What we do know is that it inspired filmmakers and intellectuals in Africa and abroad; Sembène’s acolytes are innumerable. This episode, we talk about the political conditions that brought african perspectives to the screen for the first time, and we talk through questions of intended audience and historical significance as a way of understanding the role cinema has in our lives.

Next week: Eddington (2025) by Ari Aster

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Mike Nichols. Elizabeth Taylor. Richard Burton. An expletive-filled broadway play. A draconian Hays Code on its last legs. These were the ingredients for a film that would shake hollywood to its core in the mid 60’s. We talk about a notorious production, the scenes that astounded us, and how the film feels like an inspiration for filmmakers like Cassavetes, Aster, and the Safdies.

Next week: Black Girl (1966) by Ousmane Sembène

Hosted by Zachary Domes (hetchy on letterboxd) and J Brooks Young (jyoun on letterboxd). Music by hetchy

French New Wave gets all the publicity, but the Soviet New Wave might be the most astounding development that cinema had seen to date. In this episode, we talk about the precursors to Sergei Parajanov’s career-changing, and medium-changing, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, from Dovzhenko to Tarkovsky, and the films this Ukrainian folk art epic inspired, like Children of Men. We also discuss how folk art and music affects us deeply in this day and age when so much of culture is manufactured and lacking any tradition. And we explain what’s happening in the film plot-wise, with the help of the original short story.

Next week: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

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Hosted by Zachary Domes (hetchy on letterboxd) and J Brooks Young (jyoun on letterboxd). Music by hetchy