Reframing Tradition

By: Beatrijs van Agt

Choosing a film festival’s main theme under which to show all the pictures is always a difficult task. A theme an audience’s guide through the programme, but its ultimate choice does not imply that all films easily fit into it. There is always the risk that some of them might be viewed not for their sheer beauty or content, but instead are seen through the thematic lens provided. The important thing is that the separate films are done justice by the choice that is finally made.
Whether the theme is chosen based on the movies sent in or whether the selection is made through the choice of them is less relevant – the point is that a choice must be made. By making that choice a festival can make a statement about the importance of an issue that it wishes to bring to the attention of its public. And perhaps this is also its duty. Instead of simply showing all the wonderful pictures that were made, a festival can make a point to bring forward narratives that it feels are cinematographically important. This can only add to discussions about quality and it helps the viewer along as well. Even the most obstinate productions, that at a glance seem to challenge the main theme, is chosen for thematic reasons, not despite them. It is then that the audience is challenged to unravel the secrets of the less transparent films.
Africa in the Picture’s choice of this year is Reframing Tradition, a broad theme. So broad perhaps, that any and every movie might fit it; indeed every film tells something about history. Yet this theme bears upon something special that can be found in all the selected productions. Reframing Tradition invokes not only history, or tradition; it invokes especially the way that these are perceived. Reframing means: taking out of its current frame and placing into a new one. Film itself uses the frame in a literal sense. When reframed, history can suddenly look quite different than it did. Reframing Tradition is all about that different view on history. All the selected films tell a story, but not each of them in a new way.
Prince Loseno is a striking example of the new look on tradition. This animated film tells us about a Kingdom ‘deep in Dark Africa’. The King desperately desires a son to follow in his footsteps and ensure the throne in future times. Its happy ending seemingly implies a uncritical acceptance of tradition, yet the story itself is highly critical about the sufferings that tradition can cause in people’s lives. De anger of the girl who was denied to the King in marriage; the jealousy between his three wives; the pitiful games they play to win his favour. Prince Loseno shows tradition as it is kept alive, but also unveils the price that is to be paid.
Accepting tradition is also the subject of My beautiful Smile. A compact gem about the Senegalese habit of tattooing the gums of women in black. A detailed insight into the ritual shows that there is pain right along with pride about the flashy white teeth. The film ‘reframes’ this traditional rite in two ways. First by demonstrating that the old way is alive and kicking in today’s world. Second by showing there is pride in a ritual that can have negative connotations. Is this a film about the painful aberration of young women living up to men’s ideals? Or do the women own these ideals about beauty themselves? My Beautiful Smile does not make a choice. The view is not that of a critical outsider, it is a more doubting perspective of one who is closer to the tradition. Indeed, My Beautiful Smile was made by a woman, from Senegal.
The notion that history is not unambiguous to those who live in it is fascinating. For one it means that people who acknowledge and own their history and traditions can tell the story with nuance. An example of this is 34 South, a film about young people in South Africa of variable origins. The different demands that their Muslim, Christian, black and white backgrounds put on them cause many identity problems. What to do with that white grandfather if you are a young ‘black’? 34 South is a daring picture, its final plot unfolding against the burdened background of an old colonial village. When it comes to re-telling history, this is a particularly brave choice. It is by acknowledging the colonial era of their history and the reality that grew from them — including the harsh and unfair aspects of it — that these youngsters can move on with their lives. Telling history over and over again is a prerequisite for having a future. Only with a background, a history and traditions can we move ahead.
Facing the dark side of history is also key in remarkable films from the so-called ‘diaspora’, people of African origin who live elsewhere in the world. The British Cherps and the French french wedding caribbean style both settle the account with the suffocating and destructive view of the black man, who he should be or simply ‘is’. french wedding caribbean style is perhaps most explicit in its radical rejection of colonialism and racism, and the wounds that it has caused. But it is equally radical in rejecting any thought that harm done in the past can relieve a man of his responsibilities for his own actions. By doing so it blows a fresh breath of air into the sensitive subject of racism and discrimination. Many of the discussions about what it means to be ‘black’ or ‘white’ — see for example the titillating discussion in Cherps about the effect of dying black frizzy hair blond — are declared irrelevant in both films. They move beyond the issue of accepting or owning tradition and on to freeing oneself of tradition’s suffocating and limiting aspects.
Reframing Tradition is both about tradition’s acceptance and its critique. It is about the acknowledgement and — where necessary — the rejection of tradition. Reframing Tradition thus means looking ahead towards the future. At least two films in the programme explicitly deal with this subject. Worrisome Africa Paradis is less hopeful than could be expected from.
34 South’s optimism or french wedding caribbean style’s promising emphasis on freedom of choice. Points Africa Paradis to these very aspects as a prerequisite for an endurable future. It shows what happens when optimism and choice lose their battle to cynicism and indifference. It is clear that ‘reframing tradition’ — telling the same stories from ever changing perspectives — is a constant necessity.