Dahomey- Part of the Albertine Cinémathèque French Film Festival

Name: Dahomey- Part of the Albertine Cinémathèque French Film Festival
Start: 2025-09-10T19:30:00-06:00
Location: Muenzinger Auditorium, Boulder, CO, United States, Colorado 80309

Schedule

Wed, 10 Sep, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

Muenzinger Auditorium, Boulder, CO, United States, Colorado 80309 | Boulder, CO

The Department of French & Italian and the International Film Series have partnered to bring in the Albertine Cinémathèque French Film Festival! Designed to expand access to French cinema and support film programming at American colleges and universities, Albertine Cinémathèque’s annual film selection engages with the greatest issues of our time while nurturing an enduring love for this diverse and evolving art form. Albertine Cinémathèque is part of the French For All initiative by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation and is made possible by the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (CNC).
Films were selected for their cultural and cinematic significance and will include special introductions from University faculty. All shows are also FREE for all to attend!
DAHOMEY Synopsis: Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.
Mati Diop’s vital new film documents an historic moment of restitution—and frames it as a resurrection. Tracing that passage back to life, Laura Staab illuminates how Dahomey uses inventive, hybrid forms to reflect on the return of African art.
Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale, Diop’s dynamic film brings a dazzling sense of imagination to vital issues of self-determination and restitution. Amplifying voices from beyond the walls of international museums, this spellbinding work redefines the spaces of culture and art.