And So Anges Die--Melissa Hurley

I’ll admit, I had higher expectations for the film, And So Angels Die. I enjoyed the film Black Girl, so I was expecting this one to be similar. When it wasn’t I was disappointed. I didn’t like the cinematography, I found it hard to follow the plot line and on top of it all, I was extremely tired the morning we watched it so it wasn’t doing much to keep me engaged and excited about what was going to happen next. However, my eyes were re-opened after I read Mermin’s essay on Senegalese filmmaking. I had innocently fallen guilty to the western aesthetic of films. I have always viewed filmmaking as art, but all I really had to reference were American films that were action-packed with special effects, an attractive cast and a happy ending on the horizon. Mermin really struck a nerve though when she said on page 5 of her essay: “A Senegalese film must therefore either compete with the popular films in Dakar or target an audience abroad. And so filmmakers who choose not to cater to popular formulas are accused of being Westernized—if a film seems an impossible bet for the Senegalese public, it must, the reasoning goes, be aimed at Europe.” I think accused is really the key word here. It made me realize, if film is art, who has the right to accuse the artist, aka the filmmaker, of being to western, or too African, or too anything? It’s their art, they should be able to make it how they want. So after this realization, I reconsidered my opinion of the film. Absa was on a low budget, and was worried about being called “too European”. All things considered, I think he did a good job with what he was working with. I still do not completely understand the plot but I found a new appreciation for the film after reading the article.

I think that both Sembene’s and Absa’s films share the same general message to the same general audience. I feel that they are saying “This is us, this is our culture. These are our struggles and our lives.” They are not being flashy or loud about it. They simply just want to be heard, because the struggle of the African people goes so far back into history that their “minority status” has the danger of forever being considered normal.  This needs to be changed and I think that this is what the filmmakers are trying to take a step towards.