ZANJ HEGEL LA
(HEGEL’S ANGEL)
Inspired by southern Haiti’s Vodou and Kanaval cosmologies, and co-written with the entire cast and crew, Zanj Hegel La (Hegel’s Angel), is a cinematic fable challenging the boundaries between collaborative ethnography, fiction and reverie. The film follows an inquisitive boy named Widley whose life, suspended between mundane activities and foreign myths, unfolds away from the turmoil of an upcoming presidential election. As the boy wanders through an evanescent countryside, running errands for his father and paying furtive visits to a local film editor, his searching eyes become a mirror for the exotic new spell sweeping his people from one empire to another.
“tropes on the absurdity of auteur theory [...] deploys an aesthetics of allegory without ever succumbing to the ideological telos of allegory”
‑ Peter Dickinson (Anthropologica)
“a clever meta-commentary on encroaching modernity and the impact of cultural imperialism [...] a generous, richly layered work of cinematic self-awareness”
‑ Shaun Inouye (The Cinematheque)
“masterful [...] a richly lyrical portrait of the denizens of contemporary Haiti and their complex relationship to the outside world [...] provocatively combines fiction and non-fiction filmmaking techniques”
‑ Michael G. Smith (White City Cinema)
“succeeds in raising questions about how one might portray a culture that is not their own [...] allows its viewers to rethink stereotypes about Haiti and its people”
‑ Paige Smith (SAD Mag)
“thought provoking [...] inspiring us to imagine new possibilities that may be realized by transgressing conventional boundaries between fiction and ethnography”
‑ Dara Culhane (CIE)
“not only does the film confront history and memory, but its structure also radicalizes ethnographic conventions and formality of linear storytelling”
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“pioneering new forms of collaborative dialogue, exchange and co-authorship that are breaking new ground and helping redefine practices of co-creation […] significantly, [this film] speaks in particular to the struggles of access, privilege and hierarchy which are so central to our current debates concerning the decolonization of cinema […] I argue that [the director’s] democratizing and decentring models of creation are making significant contributions to debates about authorship and privilege”
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“a commitment to community-authored filmmaking, places [the director] and his work at the forefront of a new, non-extractive storytelling”
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Awards and honours
2020 Best in Show Award for Documentary, Best Direction & Acting Award for Documentary, Best
Cinematography Award for Documentary, Best Audio/Music/Soundtrack Award for
Documentary, Colorado International Activism Film Festival
Golden Dragon Award - Experimental Film, Paro Druk International Film Festival
Best Fiction Feature Award, Genova Flight International Film Festival
Nominee, Best Experimental Film Award, International Film Festival Cologne
2019 Best Feature Film Award, Chicago Collected Voices Ethnographic Film Festival
Best Indigenous African Feature Award, Oaxaca Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival
Best Narrative Feature Award, Canton Etowah Film Festival
Best International Feature Film, Hukampura Ayodhya Film Festival
Best Documentary Award, Athens Cinergo International Film Festival
Best Feature Film: Platinum Award, Albuquerque Mindfield Film Festival
Best Feature Film, Ahmedabad Karnavati International Film Festival
Nominee, Best Feature Documentary Award, Glendale International Film Festival
2018 Best Experimental Film Award, London Falcon International Film Festival
Screenings (selected)
2021 Enugu Coal City Film Festival
2020 Genova Flight International Film Festival
International Film Festival Cologne
La Spezia Onirica Film Festival
Castellabate Film Festival
Colorado International Activism Film Festival
Puglia International Film Festival
Garanhuns FESTCiMM - Festival Internacional de Cinema No Meio do Mundo
2019 Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival
Buenos Aires International Film Festival
Siliguri Everest International Film Festival
Caserta Intimalente/Intimatelens Film Festival
Hukampura Ayodhya Film Festival
Ahmedabad Karnavati International Film Festival
Balneário Camboriú International Film Festival
Copenhagen Aks International Minorities Festival
Chicago Collected Voices Ethnographic Film Festival
Benin City Film Festival
Glendale International Film Festival
Bucharest Wallachia International Film Festival
Split Film Festival - International Festival of New Film
Ciudad del Este Independent Film Festival
Albuquerque Mindfield Film Festival
Osaka Kadoma International Film Festival
Paro Druk International Film Festival
Brighton Rocks Film Festival
Oaxaca Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival
Athens Cinergo International Film Festival
Lagos Realtime International Film Festival
Festival Nouvelles Vues Haïti
Canton Etowah Film Festival
Houston National Black Film Festival
Cannes International Pan-African Film Festival
Tupelo Film Festival
Festival de Largos y Cortos de Santiago
Darbhanga International Film Festival
2018 London Falcon International Film Festival
Franklin International Independent Film Festival
Nassau Docs Without Borders Film Festival
Syracuse International Film Festival
New Delhi The Bioscope Global Film Festival
Chile South Film and Arts Academy Festival
Miami Independent Film Festival
Venezuela Five Continents International Film Festival