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CMCI Lecturer Estrella Sendra publishes in the Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil on photographer and filmmaker Massow Ka-El Junio.

Dr Estrella Sendra, co-principal investigator of the research Project ‘Decolonizing Film Festival Research in a Post-Pandemic World’, funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund, Government of Canada, has recently completed a fieldwork period in Saint-Louis, implementing a pilot methodology that seeks to contribute to the decolonization of research methods. 

This article focuses on Massow Ka-El Junio, one of the filmmakers that participated in the research partner festival Festival Saint-Louis Docs, which celebrated its 14th edition from 2 to 6 May 2023.

Massow Ka-El Junio was awarded the Wido Award for his film Yaram, a 22-minute documentary film on a displaced community due to the climate situation of their neighbourhood, Guet Ndar, in the Langue de la Barberie, where a large number of the population has lost their homes due to the floods from the surrounding sea.

This topic was discussed in depth by our research collaborator Laura Feal, a Spanish journalist based in Gandiol (Senegal), during the International Conference ‘Marginality and Fragility in African Cinemas’, which took place from 26 to 28 April in Montréal within the context of another research partner festival, Vues d’Afrique, whose 39th edition was hosted from 20 to 30 April 2023.

The conference was organised by the African Documentary Collective, Suzanne Crosta (McMaster University); Sada Niang (University of Victoria), and Alexie Tcheuyap, in partnership with Prof Sheila Petty (University of Regina), nominated principal investigator in this research project. Fieldwork in the Festival Saint-Louis Docs, completed by Dr Estrella Sendra (CO-PI), Dr Ana Camila Esteves (postdoctoral research associate) and Laura Feal (research collaborator), helped to observe the management, curation and audience approach in the festival, which places a strong focus on engagement with local audiences, through a spatial decentralisation, spreading the programme across multiple venues and location, and a thematic proximity, with films whose topics resonate with local realities.

This film is an illustrative example of such curatorial strategy, which has already been discussed in an academic festival review co-authored by Laura Feal and Estrella Sendra.

This article draws upon research supported by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF).

View the full article here.