Specters
Fifty years after his assassination, Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo, returns to haunt Belgium. Through commemorations, conferences, and a return to the site, a high-ranking Belgian official who was present in Elisabethville on that bloody day of January 17, 1961, attempts to exorcise the ghosts of the past. Set to the music of J.S. Bach's St. John Passion, Spectres plunges us into one of the darkest chapters of the decolonization of the Belgian Congo. As much an inquiry into the biopolitical body as a historical investigation, this feature film exposes the ambivalences of a historiography often used for purposes of legitimation.
Credits
Screenplay: Sven Augustijnen
Director: Sven Augustijnen
Image: Sven Augustijnen
Sound: Benoît Bruwier, Levillain
Sound editing: Benoit Bruwier
Mixing: Benoit Bruwier
Editing: Mathieu Haessler
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach (performed by La Petite Bande)
Production
Auguste Orts, Projections, Jan Mot, Cobra Films
Co-production
Kunstenfestivaldesarts / WIELS / KVS / Mu.zee / Buda Kunstencentrum / FLACC (Belgium), / De Appel (Netherlands) / Marres (Netherlands) / K9000 (Switzerland) / Kunsthalle Bern (Germany) / FRAC Bourgogne (France)
With the help
Flanders Audiovisual Fund / CERA Partners in Art / Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg / Vlaams-Nederlands Huis de Buren / Flemish Community Commission / Regional Contemporary Art Fund / Burgundy Region, Le Fresnoy
Awards
FID Marseille: Special Mention, International Competition
Media Library Prize
Art House Cinema Prize
Filming at All Costs: Flemish Community Prize
Screenings
Centre Pompidou (FR)
Tate Modern Gallery (GB)
Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen & Bern (CH)
De Appel (NL)
Marres & Jan Van Eyck Maastricht (NL)
OCA Oslo (NO)
Kunstencentrum Buda Kortrijk (BE)
STUK Leuven (BE)
Cinema Zuid Antwerpen (BE)
Cinematek Brussels (BE)
Cinema Aremberg (BE)
WIELS Centre (BE)
KASK cinema Ghent (BE)
Espace Delvaux (BE)
Festival(s)
FID Marseille (FR)
Videofid Marseille (FR)
DocAlliance Marseille (FR)
Travelling Rennes (FR)
Etats Generaux Lussas (FR)
Documentary on the Big Screen Paris (FR)
FIF La Roche-sur-Yon (FR)
Viennale Vienna (AT)
RIDM Montreal (CA)
Documenta Madrid (ES)
IndieLisboa (PT)
Festival des Écrans du Réel Beirut (LB)
Jihlava IDFF (CZ)
Rwanda Film Festival Kigali (RW)
Docville Leuven (BE)
FI du Film Policier Liège (BE)
Filmer à Tout Prix (BE)
Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels (BE)