ZOMERPROGRAMMA: Talking About Trees

Talking About Trees

On 15 August, Studio Kafunda and Movies That Matter bring Kafunda Film Fest to the Marineterrein. Studio Kafunda is built on a simple idea: a richer view of the world starts with a richer variety of perspectives. That’s why we create space for work by artists who tell stories from within their own cultural context, bringing perspectives to audiences in the Netherlands that are still too rarely seen.

For its first edition, Kafunda Film Fest brings together two films in dialogue, with the second responding to a question raised by the first. You can watch both films or join us for one. In between the two screenings, Sudanese artist Razeen will perform songs from his recently released debut album Yallah Nargus.

Full program

16.00 – 17.30: Stop Filming Us
17.30 – 18.00: Kafunda Aftertalk #1 with Joris Postema, Leia Amerding & Glodi Mbwete

Who gets to tell a story, and how do the stories we’re shown shape the image we have of the world?

19.00 – 19.30: Live performance by Razeen
20.00 – 21.30: Talking About Trees
21.30 – 22.00: Kafunda Aftertalk #2 with Saffa Khalil & Mohammed Hardan

When a country reaches us mostly through stories of war and conflict, what disappears from view? And what can film and art add to the picture?

Talking About Trees

Talking About Trees by Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari is the second screening of Kafunda Film Fest and will be followed by the second Kafunda Aftertalk.

The film follows four Sudanese filmmakers and lifelong friends trying to reopen an abandoned open-air cinema under the Al-Bashir regime. After years of censorship and a film culture pushed out of public life, they keep going, determined to create a place where people can come together around cinema again.

Their love of film runs through Talking About Trees. For them, cinema is something to experience together, and a way for stories, ideas and perspectives to circulate.

Watching the film, we experience some of that power ourselves. Through Gasmelbari’s camera, we get close to the friendship, humour and memories of these four men, and see parts of life in Sudan that rarely make the headlines.

Kafunda Aftertalk
After the screening, moderator Nikita Krouwel continues the conversation with Saffa Khalil and Mohammed Hardan: When a country reaches us mostly through stories of war and conflict, what disappears from view? And what can film and art add to the picture?

Nikita Krouwel is a cultural worker whose practice combines research, writing and programming. Her work focuses on histories of the African diaspora, anticolonialism and emancipation more broadly. She is particularly interested in bringing these histories to wider and more diverse audiences through cultural programming and public conversations.

Saffa Khalil is an archivist and PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her work is rooted in exploring the use of Black radical traditions and sonic practices to shape alternative archives and create, preserve and sustain knowledge production. She is also co-founder of YallaForSudan, a politically independent, Netherlands-based group seeking to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in Sudan.

Mohammed Hardan is a journalist and human rights researcher who creates reports and documentaries about the lives of people in conflict-affected areas. During the Syrian war, he documented the conflict first as a citizen journalist and later as a journalist. His footage features in Allies in Exile, and his PhD research explores citizen journalism, how people document their own wars, and what this means for truth-finding.

Razeen is a Sudanese artist raised in the Netherlands. Bringing together his Afro-Arab roots with influences from Western pop music, his music moves between the different cultures and worlds that have shaped him. At Kafunda Film Fest, he will perform songs from his recently released debut album Yallah Nargus.

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