Cinema
L'Équateur aux cent visages
André Cauvin · 1948
Synopsis
A long reportage across the Belgian Congo: the equatorial forest, wild animals, the villages and peoples of the colony, including the Pygmies. The director lived among the inhabitants to film their daily life and customs; some ritual ceremonies were filmed as they happened, others reconstructed in front of the camera.
Context
The film was commissioned notably by the Colonial Fund for Economic and Social Propaganda, for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sabena, the Belgian airline. It came after the propaganda film on the Congo at war, shortlisted at the Oscars in 1944, and its author moves away in it from the imposed discourse to give it in places the look of an ethnographic inquiry. It shows again the ambiguity of all his Congolese work, divided between the celebration of African traditions and colonial propaganda.
Who it is for
A feature-length documentary of an hour and eight minutes, to be watched also as a document of Belgian colonial cinema.
Prizes and reception
A commissioned tourist film, born of an anniversary of the national airline, which at times takes on an ethnographic character.
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