PRISM (2021)
Is the technology of photography and motion pictures inherently racist? With PRISM, Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invites Cameroonian documentarian Rosine Mbakam (CHEZ JOLIE COIFFURE, DELPHINE'S PRAYERS, TWO FACES OF A BAMILÉKÉ WOMAN) and Burkinabe director Éléonore Yaméogo (PARIS MON PARADIS) to collaborate on a film in which their differences in skin color and experiences as filmmakers serve as jumping-off points to explore this provocative question. Photography having been invented and standardized with white skin in mind, "the aesthetics and emulsions weren't created for us," director and actor Sylvestre Amoussou says. That underlying problem remains, even with digital technology: such white-centricity has meant that photographic media assume and privilege whiteness. As PRISM deconstructs these issues, the filmmakers are also trying to reconstruct them by creating in a collaborative manner and self-consciously attempting to overcome these biases. The film consists of three sections, one by each of the three directors, but it is more than that: recorded Zoom conversations are woven into the film in which the directors discuss the issues, their viewpoints and the very making of PRISM itself. To tackle racism in Western filmmaking, PRISM takes what some see as simple technical problems and, while creating powerful counter-images and methods of working, explores their insidious personal, cultural and historical ramifications. (Note adapted from Icarus Films.) Official Selection, 2021 New York Film Festival. DIR/SCR Éléonore Yaméogo, An van. Dienderen, Rosine Mbakam; PROD Natalie Gielen. Belgium, 2021, color, 78 min. In French with English subtitles. NOT RATED
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 78 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, March 27, 2022
Genre: Documentary
