Events Calendar
Experimental Documentary, The Netherlands
English & French w/ English Subtitles
An ambiguous notion of territory, property and home. In 2009, the embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo located in the Hague, Netherlands was suddenly closed. Behind the closure was a legal fight that been taking place between the Congolese government and a debt collector. As the fate of the embassy sat in limbo, the building it had once inhabited was squatted by a group of artists, just a few days before squatting was formally outlawed in the Netherlands. Soon it was transformed into a collective living house with music, art and communal events. A HOUSE PLACED IN BETWEEN - Poetry in the Comfortable Grey Zone was shot between 2011-2016, by filmmaker Toshie Takeuchi, who at the time was living and working out of the Congoelse embassy. The project derives from Takeuchi’s encounter with a group of Congolese protestors in the house, during the turbulent period of unrest following the presidential election in the Congo in 2011. The outcome of the presidential election overwhelmingly but questionably favoured Joseph Kabila who was re-elected as president. Therefore, the opposition protestors – supporters of Étienne Tshisekedi – came to occupy the embassy in order to protest the rigged election results. To their surprise, the embassy was already occupied by foreigners. Having this event as a reference point, Takeuchi embarks on an exploratory journey into the history of D.R Congo and the embassy building itself. The film attempts to show the process of this research, and both personal and collective contemplation about the “protected” artists living in this ambiguous grey zone. The film also questions on the colonial legacy that remains embedded in today’s political system and our perceptions.
KASONGO (IM)MATERIAL
Dir. Noemie Arazi and Georges Senga, 2022, 39 min.
Documentary, Belgium & DR Congo
Lingala, Swahili & French w/ English subtitles
KASONGO (IM)MATERIEL explores the forgotten history of the Swahili-Arab in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their trajectory from oppressors to oppressed along with the local adoption of their culture and language mirror the tensions and ambivalence of history and heritage. Interweaving scenes from excavations with archival material and contemporary recordings, an archaeologist and a photographer engage with the affective impact of that which persists from the past into the present.