Rumba Rules, New Genealogies
German premiere
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| 5 EUR, reduced 2,50 EUR |
| Book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the Foyer. |
| Film screening and audience discussion |
| DR Congo, Canada, Belgium, France I 2020 I 108 min I language: Lingala I English subtitles |
| English, Lingala |
| Subtitles |
| Ground Floor, Hall 2 |
| Part of: AFRIKAMERA |
Behind the scenes of Kinshasa’s music scene: ‘Rumba Rules, New Genealogies’, a documentary film by David N Bernatchez and Sammy Baloji, offers an enjoyable, rough-edged glimpse into the scene.
The current AFRICAMERA festival is spotlighting Youth & Youth Culture, with a particular focus on music. David N Bernatchez and Sammy Baloji’s documentary film Rumba Rules, New Genealogies, provides a portrait of the 30-strong Brigade Sarbati Orchestra. When they bring their Congolese rumba to the stage, the melange of Cuban rhythms, home-grown vocals and dancing draws its audience in with an infectious, inescapable passion.
This nocturnal rumba-partying in the Congolese metropolis of Kinshasa might seem improvised, but there’s hard work going on behind the scenes. Rumba Rules, New Genealogies offers an enjoyable, rough-edged glimpse into the music scene of Kinshasa, with impromptu shots drawing the audience into jam sessions and the quest for perfection in the studio. The film follows several of the musicians, telling of their life in the Congo and the years of musical training that forms the foundation for the orchestra’s success – and its creativity and raw energy that brings the unifying power of rumba music alive.
In Rumba Rules, New Genealogies, filmmakers Sammy Baloji, David N Bernatchez and Kiripi Katembo Siku (who died shortly before filming) have succeeded in creating both a thrilling, polyphonic film essay on the rumba scene, and a captivating portrait of the metropolis of Kinshasa.
Biographies
studied human sciences at the University of Lubumbashi, and now works as a visual artist, filmmaker and photographer. He is one of the co-founders of Les Rencontres Picha, a photography and video festival that takes place every two years in Lubumbashi. Since 2005, he has been exploring memory and history within the Democratic Republic of Congo. His videos and photographic series show how identity can be shaped, transformed, perverted and re-invented. He has been invited to participate as a visual artist in numerous international exhibitions, including the Lyon Biennale, the Venice Biennale (2015), the Dakar Biennale (2016), and documenta 14 (2017). His works have been exhibited at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, at the Mu.ZEE Museum of Modern Art in Ostend, the Tate Modern in London, the Africa Center in New York and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC. He has received numerous awards, including from the Prince Claus Fund in the Netherlands, the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie in Bamako, and the Dakar Biennale. In 2014 he won the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative Award. Filmography: Kasala: The Slaughterhouse of Dreams or the First Human, Bende’s Error (2020), Tales of the Copper Crosses Garden: Episode 1 (2018), The Tower (2017), Pungulume (2016), Bare-faced (2011), Mémoire (2007).
is an artist and social scientist from Quebec. An anthropologist and filmmaker, he has been exploring the Congolese music scene since 2004. Whether focussing on music (Rumba Rules (2020)), sport (Temps temps (2009)), or on memory and history in the wider sense, (Ludovica (2018), Joseph Samuel Jacques Julien (2015), Solo Kinshasa (2013)), Bernatchez’s films scrutinise social and narrative structures. He has presented his images, performances and lectures in many varied contexts and countries. Confronting the dynamics of being rooted or uprooted is central to his work.
was born in Goma. After completing his art studies, he worked as a producer, photographer and painter, and created numerous exhibitions in the DRC. He died of malaria in 2015, at the age of just 36.
