Yn ddechrau, byddwn yn siarad am bob un o'r ffilmiau, un ar un, yn ystyried y stiliau y defnyddiodd y ffilmiau, ac yna efallai y byddwn yn siarad ychydig yn fwy agored am rai o'r themaion a ddysgu'r rhain a rai o'r pwyntiau rydyn ni'n meddwl y byddai'r gyfarwyr yn ceisio eu gwneud ac yn wir, i asesu pa mor effeithlon rydyn ni'n meddwl eu bod nhw'n gwneud. themes that were explored and some of the points that we think that directors were trying to make and indeed to assess how effective we think they were so in terms of the first film the Lee Champ's Dealer Colonization what did we think was particularly notable about that film is there anything that we thought stood out in terms of the style in which it was made? What do we think of the animation? Obviously we had a piece which is retelling a historical event that took place based on true life events and so the directors used animation. Was there anything we noticed about the style of the animation? Would you like to share what you noticed about the animation? I asked myself if it was made with what they are or something. So it was very interesting. Besides the whole rhythm, with the school finger volume, with this old material. So that the animation... Yeah, exactly. I think that's a really valid point. And certainly AI is increasingly becoming much more of a tool that animators are using. It means that some of the really high costs and time that they had to spend on making animation can be sidestepped through the use of AI thank you for sharing that point what I thought was particularly effective and I suppose really unusual about the use of the animation was the way in which it gave the land a personality so I don't know how many of you was the way in which it gave the land a personality. So I don't know how many of you noticed the way in which the reeds, the land was moving and acting as a personality in the piece. So it wasn't just about the resistance of the individuals who were living on the land, but it was also about how they were working with the land and the land was resisting this colonial force. And I thought that the director was particularly effective in giving the land a personality in terms of how it moved and how it was animated. So I thought that that was something that stood out in terms of the particular aesthetic that the filmmakers had decided on. Was there anything else that we noticed about that first film that we thought is worth mentioning or that stood out? What about the role of the feminine? Did we notice anything about the role of the woman with that piece? The queen of Wallow? Yes, exactly. So the role of that queen of Wallow and her resistance is particularly important because we still have problems historically being able to talk about and to document and to narrate the involvement of women who have resisted acts of colonialization and who have stood up to authority and to rigid structures. So I think the role of that particular Queen and the success that her and her people had in terms of resisting the attempts of the colonial powers to turn the land into another project was particularly effective and quite important, particularly for that part of West Africa because there's still a challenge to bring out the narratives and the histories and the stories of women who were part of these acts. Anything else we noticed about that film? What about the imagery of the present day industry? So I don't know how many of you noticed that. At the beginning of the film there was a shot of, I believe it's a factory or producing plant. Did we notice that? This idea of industrialization and how that sort of links to the colonial project? That the calling has still followed by until this present day. Exactly. And it's still destructive as it always was. Yes exactly, thank you. So yes, I think that whole message that the colonial power is still with us today and it's still extractive, it's still destructive, was quite effectively put forward in the film in terms of showing those present day images of industry as well as the historical. Okay, so I wanted to now talk about the second film that we saw, Our Bodies, Nigeria's Ghosts. Anything that we noticed about the style of that work that we thought stood out or that we thought was particularly effective in terms of the filmmaker's voice. So of all of the pieces, this was the only one that we A, see the director. So I don't know if some of you observed Abba. She presented herself in some of those scenes, but she also narrates the piece. So what did we think of the effectiveness of having the director, the filmmaker present in the film and also narrating the film. Do we think it gives the work any particular quality compared to the other ones that we saw? I think it gets very personal, of course, because we see that also the whole narration is kind of poetic in a way too and very much giving us an idea of her personal thoughts. Yes. So it like, and re-enhances the both things. Yes exactly. Yes that's great thank you. Yeah so it made it perhaps more personal, there's an element of it being quite poetic and maybe it made some of her messages feel a bit more immediate. And it also combines her personal experience with her grandfather into this whole story she tells and I think it makes it a more, it's easier to imagine what she has to go, which her own history had to go through. Yes, that's great. Thank you. Yeah, so I think there was a particular point about her relationship with her Igbo grandfather who didn't speak English and this notion that his thoughts and his ideas about the world would be very different to her own because of the fact that they didn't have English speaking between them. Anything else that we thought stood out about this work? What did we think of the the dummy? I was thinking about the the maker little more pictures in one screen. Yes. And I thought it kind of elevated the storyline. There are more voices or more sources or it gave us the opportunity to see more at once and not only her voice voice but it kind of also reminded me of like the thing grandfather that he is like imagine being so different to those sheets and but it was really nice to see this also in the picture like it would feel the structure that way yeah yeah no i agree i think that was something that perhaps made it quite compelling all of the archive that she managed to pull together and was able to use to demonstrate and show these different voices and perspectives and even the style in which she put it together did any of us notice the way that the images appeared on the screen compared to the other films So did we notice how she typically had like a little square with the imagery sometimes like at the top right hand or the left she didn't she rarely used the whole screen? What did we think about that? Do we think it was effective or different or it might be a collage type of thing that was showing us the lives that used to be in a more culturally independent lifestyles which the people used to have but now is more filled in with the colonial influences. So yeah, it's influenced by COVID. Yes exactly, it's it's it's been to inspire. Yes, exactly. That's great. Yeah, I think it was really visually striking the tableau, as you say. And I think it's an interesting style that, you know, a filmmaker can employ if maybe they don't have a lot of resources or they are using material and unsure about how visually the audience would engage with it trying to experiment with the style in which it appears on the screen gives the audience maybe a different perspective or way to think about how that story is being told um i did mention the um the white dummy did any of us notice that that appeared throughout the film? What did we think that represented or did we think it was effective as a device, a narrative device? Yeah, I saw the whole juxtaposition of the archive material with the own story and dummy for me play into that because it was made from cotton so yes symbolism for colonialism yeah of where we change this story just as she's replaying the i had material yes i thought it was effective yeah that's great that's brilliant thank you um and what about the music because one of the points the director makes towards the end of the piece is about this idea of using dance almost as a way to work through maybe some of the difficulties and the pain and the legacy of colonialism. What did we think about that notion of dance and even the use of music in the piece? Was there anything that we noticed in particular? Yep. For me the whole thing was kind of a dance because the picture frame also moved through a picture all the time and the palaver movement in itself and then juxtaposition in that with dance was kind of throwing and carrying that. Yeah, that's great, thank you. I really appreciate that piece of feedback and I agree. I think even the way the director used the images and the way they moved across the screen could be seen as like a form of a dance or movement or choreography that aids the story? Because why do we think they may have decided to use music or this notion of dance in the way that they did in terms of the images that we saw? It brings life. Yes, it brings life. Yes, it brings life. Archive material and music. Yes. Always gives body other places. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. And also, it is quite difficult subject matter. You know, talking about colonialism and some of the difficult things that happened in the past, it's not easy. So it is important to have an aspect of the story that lightens the narrative or gives another way for viewers to have access to the story and to be able to engage with it. And I think that the director did this in a quite effective way. So the final film, Time to Change, that was quite short and very different to the other ones that we saw. Anything that we particularly noticed about it or that we thought was distinctive. So that was the only film where there was no dialogue. There was no speaking by any protagonists or individuals, there was no narration. We were just sort of left to work through what the story could be through the images. Anything else we noticed? I really liked how it was bringing these still lives to life, because it also works with archival materials, like static pictures, but the way the filmmaker guided our eyes to different parts of the image, and then brought kind of movement and perception into the whole thing, and then also with the slide animation going on, it should be like recontextualizing this kind of material. Yes. And really like draw the whole piece live. I agree. So I think even though it was a very short piece and probably quite simple in how it was pulled together, the director was really effective in bringing a sense of urgency in how they pulled these very obscure images, particularly of the animals together to sort of give a message about the impacts that colonization had, not just on the body and on individuals and the land, but also on animals too. Anything else that we thought was important or distinctive in terms of the style of that last film, Time to Change? I don't know if my thinking is, my thought is the right thing. But, like, this topic of change, and like, what I feel is moving at the end is really connecting me that stuff okay yeah in some way it's like seeing the pollution and they say affect yeah the climate and see at the end they talk about changing but I feel they use that yeah kind of getting worse yes that's really interesting thank you for sharing that, that's really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. And that's a really helpful way to link the films. The idea that the first film, in terms of the interaction with the land and so on, and then with the final film, the destruction of the land and the exploitation of the land and the animals and whatnot, and so on, and all of the conversations we have about climate change. We can look at these images, which are many decades old, but I suppose question how far things have moved ahead or what actually has changed. And obviously the film has that in its title, Time to Change. Something that I thought was particularly notable about that last film was the tone of the film. I thought it was quite spooky and a bit eerie. Interestingly, the film before it, Our Bodies, Nigeria's Ghosts has ghosts in the title, but I felt that this, the final film, Time to Change, had a haunting, spooky kind of feeling about it that I found stayed with me just because of how the director had put the images together. And, you know, these photographs that you could easily look at and probably dismiss or not think much about, they put it together with such urgency and with a particular tone that I thought was quite interesting. So those are the key points that I wanted to make about the film specifically. One of the things that I wanted to explore, and some people have started to make points relating to this is what are some of the impacts in terms of colonialism that we think are still with us, particularly those of us who are mainly based in the global north? Obviously, we're here in Austria in this instance. But how do some of the impacts of these events of colonialization that would have taken place in parts of the world like Africa, Asia, etc. How do we think that they still live with us? By financial dependency on the Western world, by land grabbing, I don't know any citizens, and also corruption of independent or seemingly independent politics by Western politics. That's great, thank you. So yeah, certainly corruption in terms of financial dependence and so on, as you've mentioned. Any other ways in which the impact of colonialism or some of the events and activities that we've seen mentioned in the films That we think still lives with us or still important One thing media films touch on is the archives because who has the authority for these archives, because obviously the people who shot these movies, who shot these photographs, were once an authority, were the materials, the power to it, and how it feels like playing history in a way that was taken away because these are archives of colonizers, basically. Yes, exactly. So even the idea of who has access to the archive, who shot the material, who perhaps has the choice about its legacy and how it can be used is something that is, you know, still with us. Anything else that we think is important in terms of understanding how the legacy and the ghosts of colonialism still live with us in the modern day? About how the, yeah, the knowledge of this region, if you have to also about the first period of the clinical science, the influence of the Western and the botanical science of that region, most areas in South Asia, and how mainly how the magnification of the territories they live, and also like changing the slip influence to new names, to new maps, new cultures, how it impacts Yes, exactly, that's great. So even in terms of land, land demarcation, botany and science and so on, we could see some of that obviously reflected in the films and they're apparent, you know, even when we go to any of our historical museums here in Austria or parts of Europe. Anything else that we think is important to note in terms of the colonial legacy that the films talk about? What about how we consume culture? Do we think that the colonial legacy affects how we value culture? So whether it be films or art, art forms, et cetera, do we think that that colonial enterprise has affected the value system that we have in terms of culture from different parts of the world? Yeah, I thought about your question and also in creation of the role of woman and nature and like all these topics because it's like some kind of all this week thought topic of colonialism andrope surgeries patriarchal system that everything connected and related to nature, woman and not white European culture seems like lower and like more decorative and for me We have some kind of intersection between all these films that shows this role of woman who is connected and related to nature and power of nature and that you ask about dance that like also we see the speaker then of a film that they are like very serious and like you know all this school system that everything is not related to this classical culture it seems like not serious not valuable enough but i think this is also the question of colonial colonialism today that we um we work with technologies example, not from the perspective of collaboration with nature, but trying to receive more from people, from culture, from nature. And I think it's our goal as modern humans should be like to switch the perception from this like higher point to like this collaborative point yeah that's fantastic thank you so much for sharing about that it's a really important observation the way that we value some cultures and we put them in a hierarchy but especially as you said you know um thinking about the land and women and the feminine and this idea that, you know, in Europe we have this classical culture and sometimes it can seem as if it's given all of the elevation and other cultures maybe are not seen to be as important or maybe not given as much attention. So I'm just going to sort of wrap up at this point. Thank you for those of you who did share some of your thoughts. The festival obviously continues over the next couple of days. So I hope that you will be able to engage with us and continue to come and see films and have thoughts about the content. But it's really just to say that all of these messages and themes that we have seen in the titles we've seen today still have a resonance in terms of our film culture and indeed the values that we place as individuals living in the global south to other parts of the world. to other parts of the world. It's really on this basis that it's quite important, you know, having festivals like Cinema Afrika showcasing other voices, other perspectives and allowing us mentally to grow and to see things from another aesthetic viewpoint that can help us challenge some of the restricted and at times narrow value systems that we've inherited. So at this point, I'm going to conclude the conversation, but myself and Sandra will be around for a couple of minutes if any of you want to talk to us. I hope that some of you will be able to attend our book launch tomorrow. We've got a fantastic publication with some really dynamic contributions from writers representing the African diaspora. So thank you so much for attending today and yeah wish you a happy rest of the festival if you're able to attend. If not have a good afternoon.