The Rebellion of Roots

The Spanish premiere of Woodberry’s most recent film, Mário, which follows the tracks of revolutionary poet Mário Pinto de Andrade, an indispensable reference point in the anti-colonialist cause in Africa from the 1950s to the 1970s. Employing documentary, the film-maker unfurls in this film a striking audiovisual and photographic archive, carrying out a filmic and historical exercise in archaeology.

Mário explores the existential and political journey of a charismatic leader with unflinching resistance who devised a powerful and decisive pan-African theory to liberate different territories, interweaving other major figures such as António Agostinho Neto and Amílcar Cabral. The film underscores the need to forge solid foundations of thought to undertake the struggle and accomplish long-lasting objectives.

Film-maker and activist Ousmane Sembène, a master of African cinema, is the subject of an emotive tribute in Marseille après la guerre, a film made up of photographs of Marseille’s docks taken in 1947. The images reflect the life and struggles of the dockers, exemplified in a strike led by African emigrants in which Sembène was involved. A reminder of the exploitation and racism that characterised colonialist France to understand the tensions that still flood its streets today.

The second feature And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead works again to bring back to life voices and events wrapped in collective amnesia. In this instance, it comes in the form of a homage to Bob Kaufman, a beat generation poet regarded as the “African-American Rimbaud”, whose life and work were surrounded by an aura of legend and fascination. Woodberry draws from the strummed rhythm of Kaufman’s poetry, entangled in wisdom and dread, and the coarse textures of celluloid to return to its rawest splendour the face and discourse of an irrepressible artist.

Billy Woodberry’s first work as a film-maker was the short film The Pocketbook, influenced by the story “Thank You, Ma'am” (1958), written by poet and novelist Langston Hughes. This short story on the awakening of consciousness centres on a boy compelled to commit petty thefts who, following a failed attempt to steal a woman’s purse, is taken aback by the understanding and support he receives instead of punishment. A fable with moral tinges and a profound humanist spirit that stresses the importance of giving second chances to young people staring into the abyss.

In his debut feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts, Woodberry explores the fractures of an African American family split by the existential crisis of Charlie Banks, whose wife takes charge of keeping the family afloat financially owing to his long-term unemployment. Dependency leads to frustration and opens the wound of his sullied masculinity as he resorts to infidelity as an escape from rage and desperation. A sentimental commotion which reflects the unstoppable spiral of self-destruction of a man tied to outmoded codes and the alienating contexts of the working class in Los Angeles.