Screening session, artist talk
Xaraasi Xanne – Crossing Voices
With Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré
Conversation in French with simultaneous translation into English
The newest film by director Raphaël Grisey in collaboration with photographer Bouba Touré, chronicles the ongoing developments and practices of Somankidi Coura, a self-organized farming cooperative along the Senegal River. Somankidi Coura was founded in 1977 by a group of former migrant workers and activists who had been living in France following the Sahel drought of 1973. The film focuses on the historical struggles of migrant workers in France, rural infrastructures and networks and the afterlife of colonial developmentalism and forced labor.
Following the screening, Grisey and Touré will engage in a conversation about the cooperative, the process of documenting its work and the broader implications of telling these stories.