As Angola celebrates half a century of political independence – proclaimed on November 11, 1975 – a film series is being proposed to showcase some of the audiovisual productions that have enlivened the country’s visual lexicon over the last fifty years.
Far from ever having established itself as an “industry,” Angolan audiovisual production experienced a period of great vitality in the years immediately preceding the proclamation of independence and in the years that followed. Despite the difficulties of making films in a territory that had only recently emerged from a war for its sovereignty and was already being pushed into another, a vast film production emerged from the country’s film pantheon, led by names such as Asdrúbal Rebelo, Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, António Ole, Carlos Sousa e Costa, and the Henriques brothers, among others, and made possible by organizations such as Promocine, the Angola – Ano Zero team, Televisão Popular de Angola (TPA), the Angolan Film Institute (IAC), and the National Film Laboratory (LNC). Politically committed and openly revolutionary—although not always strictly propagandistic, as is sometimes mistakenly insinuated—this cinema actively participated in a project of emancipation also carried out through images, constructing (and questioning) the idea of the nation-state and “Angolanity.” As Ruy Duarte reminds us in one of the many writings he left us about this period, “it was independence, it was war, it was the beginning of a new era, long awaited.”
Shortly afterwards, however, film production began to show signs of slowing down – largely due to the repercussions of the civil conflict – and even previously recorded material seemed to fall into oblivion. Even so, between the mid-1980s and the end of the following decade, Angolan cinema existed and resisted as best it could: the aforementioned “pioneer” filmmakers strive to continue producing films, although almost always from abroad, and they are joined by a new generation of filmmakers, such as Zezé Gamboa, Pocas Pascoal, and Mariano Bartolomeu, whose work, also developed mainly in the diaspora, begins to leave its mark.
At the turn of the new millennium, the Angolan state allocated approximately one million dollars to film production and, in 2003, created the Angolan Institute of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia (IACAM), which seemed to promise a revival of the national audiovisual scene. Often referred to as “cinema of the revival,” this period saw the premiere of long-delayed productions – notably O Comboio da Canhoca (2004) by Orlando Fortunato and Na Cidade Vazia (2004) by Maria João Ganga – and also prompted the shooting of Zezé Gamboa’s first feature film, O Herói (2004).
Faced with state investment that was still insufficient and unable to ensure regular production, a series of independent initiatives committed to democratizing access to audiovisual production began to emerge. From 2010 onwards, the then newly created production company Geração 80 emerged as one of the most important driving forces in the country’s film scene, bringing together filmmakers such as Fradique, Kamy Lara, and Ery Claver, who recently saw his first feature film premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Rather than tracing a history of Angolan cinema and its many and varied works, this cycle seeks to showcase some of the films that have been made in the country since the mid-1970s. Bringing together multiple temporalities and their respective historical complexities—the euphoria and urgency of the revolution, the anguish of war and national reconstruction, the collapse of the socialist promise and its reconfiguration in a capitalist and neoliberal key—the program we have included here is an opportunity to reflect on the plurality and polysemy of Angolan cinema. It is also a testament to its creative fertility and resilience. Above all, as the title of the film that gives this cycle its name suggests, it is a celebration of life!
* We would like to express our gratitude to all the filmmakers who authorized the screening of their films, as well as to the National Agency for Cultural and Creative Industries (ANICC) for their collaboration in this cycle.
