EVENTS

Manthia Diawara
AI: African Intelligence

Batoto Yetu Portugal, Caxias
01.12.2024, Sunday, 11h00

E-Flyer (port)

The screening is followed by a discussion with Jürgen Bock, director of Maumaus/Lumiar Cité and producer of the film.


In partnership with Maumaus/Lumiar Cité, Associação Cultural e Juvenil Batoto Yetu Portugal presents AI: African Intelligence (2022), an essay film by Manthia Diawara that premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Produced by Maumaus/Lumiar Cité, AI: African Intelligence explores the contact zones between the African rituals of possession of the traditional fishing villages on the Atlantic coast of Senegal and the emergence of the new technological frontiers of artificial intelligence. Considering the confluence between tradition and modernity, Diawara questions how we can move from incorporeal machines to a more human and spiritual control of algorithms. Could Africa be the context for the emergence of such improbable algorithms?

Manthia Diawara was born in Mali, West Africa. He is a distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at New York University. Manthia Diawara is a prolific writer and film-maker. His essays on art, cinema and politics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema. Diawara’s notable films include: Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom (2023), AI: African Intelligence (2022), A Letter from Yene (2022), An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2015), Édouard Glissant, One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008) and Rouch in Reverse (1995). His films have been presented at festivals, biennials and a wide range of exhibition venues, including the Berlin International Film Festival, Bienal de São Paulo, Biennale de Dakar, Biennale de Lubumbashi, Centre Pompidou, documenta, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Lumiar Cité, Museu de Serralves, HKW-Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Manifesta, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Serpentine Galleries and Sharjah Biennial.

Film duration: 110 min. Film subtitled in Portuguese and spoken in French, English and Wolof.

The ticket price is €8.00 and includes lunch, with required registration at batotoyetu@gmail.com, indicating name and telephone number.

AI: African Intelligence is produced by Maumaus/Lumiar Cité and curated by GLUON (Belgium), as part of S+T+ARTS, an initiative of the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme. With additional funding from República Portuguesa - Cultura/ Direção-Geral das Artes and Snowball (Belgium).