Vendredi 18 février 2022, 16h30 – Salle 300
Me broni ba
Akosua Adoma Owusu
Ghana, USA, Doc/Exp, 2009, 22mn, N/B, DCP/video
Me Broni Ba is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. The tangled legacy of European colonialism in Africa is evoked through images of women practicing hair braiding on discarded white baby dolls from the West. The film unfolds through a series of vignettes, set against a child’s story of migrating from Ghana to the United States. The film uncovers the meaning behind the Akan term of endearment, me broni ba, which means « my white baby. »
Credits
- Produced by Obibini Pictures, LLC
- Directed & Produced by: Akosua Adoma Owusu
- Text/Story: Adwoa Adu-Gyamfi
- Cinematography: Akosua Adoma Owusu
- Editor: Romulo Alejandro & Akosua Adoma Owusu
- Additional Photography: Dustin Thompson and Betzy Bromberg
- Production Sound: Caroline Jin Key
- Sound Design & Mix: Nathan Ruyle
- Location: Kumasi, Ghana
Filmography
- Ajube Kete (2005)
- Tea 4 Two (2006)
- Intermittent Delight (2007)
- Revealing Roots (2008)
- Boyant: A Michael Jordan in a Speedo is Far Beyond the Horizon (2008)
- Me Broni Ba / My White Baby (2009)
- Drexciya (2010-1)
- Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful (2012)
- Kwaku Ananse (2013)
- Bus Nut (2014)
- Reluctantly Queer (2016)
- Mahogany Too (2018)
- On Monday of Last Week (2018)
- Pelourinho, They Don’t Really Care About Us (2019)
Biography
Akosua Adoma Owusu is a filmmaker, producer, and educator. Her cinematic essays and experimental films address the collision of identities, where the African immigrant located in the United States has a « triple consciousness ». Owusu’s work has been screened extensively at festivals and venues worldwide including the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, CCA Wattis Institute, Flaherty Seminar, Studio Museum in Harlem, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, and African Film Festival, Inc. in New York. In 2015, she was named by IndieWire as one of the 6 pre-eminent “Avant-Garde Female Filmmakers Who Redefined Cinema”.
Owusu’s films have been covered by ARTFORUM, Freize, e-flux journal, Black Camera, Film Comment, and the International Review of African American American Art. Her film KWAKU ANANSE (2013) was well-received at Berlinale Shorts. It won the 2013 Africa Movie Academy Award and was selected for the 59th Venice Biennale. RELUCTANTLY QUEER (2016) was also selected for Berlinale Shorts and nominated for the Teddy Award. Her films have been streamed on PBS, The Criterion Channel, MUBI and is currently in distribution with Grasshopper Films. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and the Fowler Museum at UCLA among others. She has also received fellowships and grants from Film at Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists (2020), Villa Sträuli residency (2019), Goethe-Institut Salvador-Bahia (2018), Camargo Foundation fellowship (2016), Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship (2015), MacDowell Colony fellowship (2013) and Creative Capital fellowship (2012).
She earned her BA in Media Studies and Studio Art from the University of Virginia and an MFA in Film and Video and Fine Art from CalArts in 2008. In 2021-2022, Owusu held an appointment as the Robert Gardner Fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies. She previously taught at Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, Pratt Institute, National Film And Television Institute (NAFTI), and at the MFA Summer program at Bard College. Owusu served as a 2023 Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy in Ghana and has participated on juries and selection committees for numerous film organizations. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Howard University.
d’Akosua Adoma Owusu
Ghana–É.-U. doc.-exp. sans dialogues 2009 coul. et n&b 22min (vidéo num.)
Me Broni Ba est un portrait lyrique des salons de coiffure à Kumasi, au Ghana. L’héritage emmêlé du colonialisme européen en Afrique est évoqué à travers l’image de femmes qui pratiquent le tressage de cheveux sur de vieilles poupées blanches venant de l’Ouest. Le film se déroule à travers une série de séquences, autour de l’histoire d’un enfant qui émigre du Ghana vers les États-Unis. Le film dévoile le sens profond du terme akan, « me broni ba », ce qui signifie : mon bébé blanc.
Crédits
Production: Obibini Pictures, LLC
Réalisation & production : Akosua Adoma Owusu
Scénario Adwoa Adu-Gyamfi
Cadre : Akosua Adoma Owusu
Montage: Romulo Alejandro & Akosua Adoma Owusu
Photo : Dustin Thompson and Betzy Bromberg
Son: Caroline Jin Key
Mixage: Nathan Ruyle
Akosua Adoma Owusu
Akosua Adoma Owusu, née le 1er janvier 1984, est une cinéaste ghanéenne-américaine d’avant-garde et une productrice dont les films sont diffusés dans le monde entier. Elle a cherché notamment à visualiser cette triple conscience de l’africaine vivant aux États-Unis, ce terme de triple conscience faisant référence au texte de 1903 de W. E. B. Du Bois’ : The Souls of Black Folk (« les Âmes du peuple noir »).
W.E.B. Du Bois parlait de « double conscience » en évoquant l’expérience des noirs américains, pris entre leur assimilation possible à la communauté américaine et leur histoire, leurs singularités. Akosua Adoma Owusu évoque cette triple conscience à laquelle doit faire face une africaine immigrée aux États-Unis, qui est tenté de s’assimiler à la culture américaine prédominante, qui est identifiée aux afro-américains par la couleur de sa peau mais qui ne s’identifie pas complètement à leur histoire, et qui a sa propre culture africaine
