Outsider communities struggle against the odds for education in this pair of deeply humanist documentaries. Q&A to follow.
Mangrove School (Filipa César and Sónia Vaz Borges, Guinea Bissau, 2022): During the anticolonial struggle against Portuguese occupation, the free schools in Guinea Bissau moved deep into the jungle and found the mangroves. The schools were fashioned on the interwoven branches and roots. The directors film the mangroves as an infrastructure with a networked architecture, as the locus of transmission, of radical education, attentive to the memory of the struggles. The mangrove's branches are powerful and encourage networks, collectives, and horizontality. [35 min; documentary; Portuguese with English subtitles]
Makongo/Caterpillars (Elvis Sabin Ngaïbino, Central African Republic, 2020): Albert and André strive to create a school in their forest community in equatorial Central African Republic. As the only secondary school graduates in their village, they teach local children while relying on the annual makongo (caterpillar) harvest to fund their project. This vivid ethnographic portrait offers no embellishment, no narration, and no added music. The direct cinema approach is remarkably sensitive, attuned to the sounds of animals, the rain forest, and the daily life of the men and their families. [73 min; documentary; Sango and French with English subtitles]
A Q&A will follow the screening.
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
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