CONAKRY LIVES

Country of production: USA/France/Guinea
Year: 2004
Language: English
Mins: 82

Written & directed: Manthia Diawara
Photography: Arthur Jafa


CONAKRY LIVES (CONAKRY KAS) is a glocal documentary on the capital city of Guinea. In January 2003, director Manthia Diawara visited Guinea-Conakry to see what was left of the artists (Ballets Africains, Bembeya Jazz National) and intellectuals (D.T. Niane, Telivel Diallo) of the Guinean Cultural Revolution; and how the citizens of Conakry have coped with globalization. The film casts a nostalgic look at Pan-Africanism in the 1960s, and asks what is the utopia of the Guinean youth today. This nostalgia strikes an odd note, given that Diawara’s own family was expelled from Guinea during the Cultural Revolution.


Manthia Diawara is presently Professor of Comparative Literature and film, and director of the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University. He is the founder and editor of BLACK RENAISSANCE / RENAISSANCE NOIRE, a bilingual review that publishes essays, fiction, reviews and artwork relating to Africa and the Black Diaspora. He has published several books on Black culture, film, and literature including: AFRICAN CINEMA: POLITICS AND CULTURE (1992), IN SEARCH OF AFRICA (1998), and WE WON’T BUDGE (2003).

Diawara’s documentary films include the widely acclaimed ROUCH IN REVERSE (1995), BAMAKO SIGI KAN (2001), and CONAKRY LIVES (2004).

Thursday 15-Apr-2004 7:00 PM Gallery Theatre