Coming to PBS’s AfroPoP next Monday, January 28:
MAMA COLONEL
Director:
Dieudo Hamadi
Premiere:
Berlin 2017
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, IDFA, Sheffield, MoMA Doc Fortnight, DocsMX, AFI Docs, Cinéma du Réel, Dok.Fest Munich, Docs Against Gravity, Encounters, Cinema Verite, One World, Guth Gafa, Dokufest, RIDM, Zurich, Göteborg, Vienna, Zanzibar, Durban, Rio
About:
A portrait of a fierce female Congolese police chief.
Veteran police officer Honorine Munyole arrives at her new post in the city of Kisangani to face daunting challenges in her mission to protect women and children from sexual violence. She meets with women in the area who tell of the rape they endured and the atrocities they witnessed during the Six-Day War of 2000 between Uganda and Rwanda within the city, but then finds their credibility questioned by others claiming more genuine victimhood. Munyole warns against mistreating children but faces all-too-common cases of adults beating, imprisoning, and starving kids as punishment for practicing witchcraft. Hamadi takes an observational approach, which, while capturing the stark realities of his subject’s work, limit the extent to which Munyole reveals herself to any great extent. Despite this, the film does convey her determination to make a difference despite the odds.
what (not) to doc 