SYNOPSIS
darkness > in the depths of the working-class neighbourhoods, in the absurdity of the rubble of endless nights, night > in this nocturnal shipwreck of the physical and symbolic power cut, resistance > abandoned to itself like a motherless chick, like a pot without a lid, like a house without a window, without a door, like a door without a lock, like a lock without a key… light > resilience, darkness > and the beauty of resistance?
Country of Production: DR Congo / Belgium
Year: 2019
Runtime: 21 min
Language: Lingala, French
Awards & Selections: Award for Best Short Documentary – IDFA 2019 · Prix Dérives – FIFF 2020 · Award (ex-aequo) for Best Short Documentary – FIDADOC 2020
Biography
Nelson Makengo (b. 1990) lives and works in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He holds a degree from the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Kinshasa (2015) and trained at La Fémis in Paris (2016). A largely self-taught photographer and filmmaker, Makengo often uses figurines of well-known movie and superhero characters, alongside visual and sound archives, to piece together the fragmented history of his country and city. His saturated, contracted use of colour allows him to reclaim and reinterpret his urban environment.
Nelson Makengo Photographer and Filmmaker