DAHOMEY - Free Film Screening & Discussion

Textile and Laurier Wellbeing in Film Forum are excited to invite you to a free screening of DAHOMEY directed by Mati Diop, followed by a community discussion. This collaboration seeks to open a discussion about local monuments, objects in museums, structures of oppression, and collective memory.

This event is a great opportunity to reflect on recent debates in the Waterloo Region about the meaning of statues and other monuments, including what they tell us about systems of oppression, such as colonization.

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ABOUT THE FILM:

Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale, Mati Diop’s Dahomey traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin. Simultaneously, Diop forges a speculative and political reflection on cultural heritage, collective memory, and the implications of restitution.

For centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey, within the borders of modern-day Benin, was a central cultural meeting point in West Africa, a site of European colonial conquest and the transatlantic slave trade. In 1892, the French invaded and looted hundreds of treasures from the royal palace, alongside thousands of other works. Following years of appeals and reports, in 2021 an agreement was made for several of these artworks to be returned from France to Benin.

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AGENDA:

7:00 PM - 7:15 PM

Introductions

7:10 PM - 8:25 PM

Film screening: Dahomey

8:25 PM - 9:00 PM

Community discussion

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ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION:

• Princess Cinemas is wheelchair-accessible
• Seat width: 21"
• Distance from knee to front of chair: 12"
• Distance from back of chair to front of chair in next row: 33"
• Aisle: 47.5"
• Depth of seat: 8.5"

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ABOUT TEXTILE:

Textile (formerly Textile Magazine) is a hyper-local arts collective that supports emerging writers and artists in Waterloo Region, Ontario, particularly those from historically excluded and marginalized groups. Our scope of practice includes publishing, mentorship, curation, and residencies. We’re drawn to projects that are grounded in urgent questions animating our communities, and creative work that (re)imagines public memory.

https://textilekw.ca/

@textilemag_

Host or Publisher Laurier Wellbeing in Film Forum (LWIFF)