Add to Queue: Indy Film Library’s films of cultural resistance
A selection of curated media lists from our global community
words – jack benjamin
location – amsterdam, the netherlands
Since launching in 2019, Indy Film Library has received films from artists and academics all over the world. These films have often demonstrated the disconnect between the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’ understanding of culture – something fragile and defenceless, to be shielded against the forces of modernity like a helpless endangered species – and the way people actually engage with it.
Globalisation has seen historic cultures marginalised, and even lost. But that does not make them antiquated, or irrelevant to our present reality. Proving that, filmmakers setting out to capture what they thought were dying worldviews often find that when people interact with older cultures, they find new ways of looking at and improving their current situation.
Below are six films from the Indy Film Library vaults, which show culture’s full capacity to contribute to the UN’s SDGs. Importantly, they also show that Article 27.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the fundamental right to participation in cultural life – is increasingly important, eight decades after its establishment.
01_Wantoks: Dance of Resilience in Melanesia (2019)
Exemplifying that culture is not just something to defend, but something which can help defend the world around it, Cultures of Resistance and famous activist documentarian Iara Lee introduce us to the Melanesian Arts & Cultural Festival, in the South Pacific – celebrating a historic anniversary of the Solomon Islands’ independence. As people from the surrounding island states visit to engage in traditional music and dance, the joyful occasion is juxtaposed with the grim reality that climate change driven by ‘developed’ nations is causing their homes to be gradually lost to the rising sea. But rather than a last hurrah to commit their culture to film for Western posterity, the event actually serves as a rallying point. Amid a captivating cultural finale, performers close out the piece by bellowing, “We are not drowning, we are fighting!”
02_Zāgbéto: Les Murmures du Masque (2024)
After also living in a host of other countries, including the Netherlands and the USA, director Sitou Akolly decided to revisit his roots in Togo – looking to engage with the oral tradition of the Ewe people. Rather than delivering a simple representation of an analogue mythology fading away in the digital 21st century, however, he finds an example of a fluid, nuanced cultural memory that still resonates today. As two traditional storytellers recount the tale of the mystical spirit of Zāgbéto, the feared entity which ends up guarding an unsuspecting village serves as a metaphor to illustrate how non-literal narrative constructs – however old – still offer a safe environment to address the anxieties of modern life. In any struggle to build a peaceful and equal world, the space where ancestral wisdom can speak to present uncertainties, and where the impossible becomes the real, is essential.
03_Threads of a Revolution (2024)
Danny Mitchell and Ross Domoney’s eye-catching documentary explores how the political theories of Murray Bookchin – alongside Janet Biehl, his long-time partner and collaborator – influenced the women-led revolution in North East Syria. The Syrian civil war, and the threat of Daesh, unleashed forces of horrific violence across the region. But amid a convergence of crises for the country’s ruling class, the historically oppressed Kurds were able to secure an autonomous region in the country’s north – where they could finally determine their own social and political future. The people of Rojava have been able to implement a form of direct social democracy – with rights and responsibilities built from neighbourhood councils, up – where women and men are afforded equal rights. As Biehl learns firsthand how the Rojava region has brought Bookchin’s theories into practice, we are shown that even in the most volatile of places, another world – one of peace, justice and strong, equitable institutions – is still possible.
04_Search for Khubady (2024)
Search for Khubady is a film about the fading memories of Ossetian culture within Georgia. Director Lale Keyhani, and a small crew of filmmakers, venture into rural Georgia, in search of a particular folk song. Khubady – a song in which the titular character goes through endless hardship, but is still known for his unmatched musical talents – has become a rallying cry for Ossetians displaced across Georgia since the 2008 war. As Keyhani finally concludes her search, a rendition of the song shows how art can bring people together, even in times of war – reminding them that who they are is defined by more than arbitrarily-drawn lines on a map.
05_Os ultimos negociantes de cavalos (2021)
Dutch filmmaker Michael Zomer takes his camera into a Roma camp, based in Portugal. This is a measured, technically polished attempt to tell the stories of one of Europe’s most marginalised and discriminated minorities – and its greatest victory is to show them for the vibrant, caring and relatable people that they are. It also shows that culture is not something in stasis. While the older people on film might prove to be The Last Horse Traders, and they might lament this as a loss, their children and grandchildren may well adapt to selling cars and machinery, instead of animals. Most importantly, their unique way of seeing the world, their history and their traditions, will survive – in a world which has often sought to snuff them out entirely.
06_The Voice Behind the Wall (2022)
Culture can be a powerful force for change, but it is important to acknowledge it still has limitations – especially if it is treated as a means to avoid conversations about economic or institutional inequalities. Afrikaans is often described as a “creole” language – one which develops from the process of different languages mixing into a new form. With South Africa obtaining sovereignty in 1934, Afrikaans – and its distinct musical scene – soon became a site of struggle, to determine what the identity of the country would be. In The Voice Behind The Wall, Gideon Breytenbach and Riku Lätti chart the initial ways in which Afrikaans music initially embodied the birth of a distinct cultural identity. Banned from the airwaves, the genre became the voice of rebellion in the 1980s. But in the post-Apartheid era, the Afrikaans music industry has been colonised and controlled by white, wealthy interests – using it to claim a narrow form of Afrikaans for an elite group of South Africans. As campaigners and musicians continue to struggle for peace and justice across the country, the film shows them contending with the trappings of under or overestimating the power of culture – recognising what it helped to change, and also where it failed.
Jack Benjamin is the founder of Indy Film Library – a motion picture review service, which grew out of the need of independent filmmakers to receive feedback on their work. Launched in 2019, the Amsterdam-based project is driven by the desire to champion new creative talent, and offer the necessary advice for it to flourish.
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