The Bozeman Doc Series continues on Thursday, January 9th, at the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture with the Montana premiere of the award-winning new documentary, Dahomey. The film screens at 7pm.
The African kingdom of Dahomey, which ruled over its region at the west of the continent until the turn of the 20th century, saw hundreds of its splendid royal artifacts plundered by French colonial troops in its waning days. Now, as 26 of these treasures are set to return to their homeland – now within the Republic of Benin – filmmaker Mati Diop documents their voyage back.
As with her layered, supernaturally tinged Atlantics, Diop takes a singular approach to contemporary questions around belonging in our postcolonial world, transforming this rich subject matter into a multifaceted examination of ownership and exhibition, and employing multiple points of view, including – most strikingly – those of the artifacts themselves as they sail in darkness over the ocean to their rightful home.
Alternating images of nocturnal melancholy and debates among students at Benin’s University of Abomey-Calavi about what should be done with the objects, Dahomey brilliantly negotiates a lost past and an unsure present. Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival.
“At only 68 minutes, Dahomey brims with plenty of perspectives on what the restitution of these ancient treasures symbolizes and the dicey political implications around it.” – Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times
“Diop dutifully, powerfully, yet poetically captures the complexity of a colonizer’s undoing so that we all can bear witness to the start of a resolution – or, at the very least, restitution.” – Cortlyn Kelly, Chicago Reader
Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets are available at the door or before the show online at www.bozemandocseries.org, where you can also buy Season Passes and 7-film punch cards, learn more about the series, and view trailers for upcoming films. The series will continue every other Thursday through April. •
