Movie Night in the Congo

One morning on my way back from the hospital in the North Kivu town of Rutshuru, I passed the above-pictured cinema and wondered what was playing and how movies are shown. [Regrettably, the scene had passed from my mind by the time I walked to the Medicins Sans Frontieres residential compound where I was staying and could have asked. Also regrettably, there was no chance at all for me to go to the movies while in the Congo; MSF operations everywhere I stayed outside of Kinshasa and Bunia (in Ituri province), where there is a large United Nations peacekeeping force headquartered on the outskirts of town, observe a curfew from nightfall for security reasons.]

It's almost impossible to imagine that there's a film projector involved; far more likely is that the cinema owners possess some sort of projection television (if reasonably wealthy), or even simply show DVD movies on a medium-sized (by developed country standards) CRT television.

Discovering this photograph yesterday among the thousands I shot in the Congo, I was prompted to wonder about the typical Congolese (i.e. ex-Kinshasa) moviegoing experience. [If any readers of this blog have first-hand knowledge, I'd be very happy to hear it.] How much does it cost to go to this cinema, I wonder (around $0.10-0.25 is my guess)? What movies are shown? French movies, I presume, dominate, and probably the major Hollywood blockbusters, subtitled in French, are shown as well. [Cost aside, language would be a bar to moviegoing for the average Congolese, who speaks little French and no English.]

What about locally produced movies? After all, Nigeria has a thriving video production industry; what about the Congo?

Well, I did some research, and it seems the 12 years of war that have killed nearly six million people has also dampened enthusiasm for producing films in the country. There are a few well-known (to cineastes) Congolese directors, but they live and work overseas.

In any event, the history of film production in the Congo is brief. During the Belgian colonial period (until 1960), Congolese were not permitted to watch foreign films at all, ostensibly because they were unable to differentiate between fact and fiction and therefore might develop mental problems (reminding me that China banned "Babe", a live action film about a talking pig, on the grounds that because pigs can't talk, people might become confused), but in fact to limit exposure to (and questions about) the more egalitarian ex-colonial world. The Belgian colonial administration did, however, see the utility of the film medium as a communications tool, and it established a Film and Photo Bureau to produce educational and propaganda films for the local population. And inevitably, in training locals to assist with the production process, the seeds of a local film industry were sown.

Not until 1987, however, was the first Congolese feature film produced, Mwenze Ngangura's "La Vie Est Belle". Although I haven't see either that or his "Pieces d'Identite", which won several awards, Ngangura remains the Congo's best-recognized film director.

Readers who live in the New York City area may be interested to learn that the Maysles Cinema is screening a "Congo in Harlem Film Festival" this month until October 24. On the schedule is Ngangura's "La Vie Est Belle" (October 23); the documentary "Reporter", chronicling New York Times correspondent Nicholas Kristof's efforts to raise global awareness about the war in the Congo; and "Pygmy Thrills" (October 20), a 10-minute short (shown with another film) filmed in the 1930s by Eugene Castle and a film Werner Herzog cites as his impetus for embarking on a film career. Unfortunately, you've missed Raoul Peck's "Lumumba", which was shown on October 2.