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HAVANA: The Tricontinental Conference 1966 (15*)

Project a Black Planet

,Cinema 1
A shot of a projection which shows two hands over as assemblage of books, papers, and similar stationery materials.

A performance-lecture by researcher and curator Léa Morin. 

In 1965, exiled Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka began organising the Tricontinental Conference. Three months before it was due to take place, he was abducted in Paris by two French police officers. He was never seen again. 

Ben Barka had intended to produce a film, titled BASTA, to screen at the Conference. Described in papers found in his briefcase as 'a feature-length historical fresco retracing the major stages in the struggles of decolonised peoples for independence, based on topical film documents and filmed reconstructions', the unrealised film was used by the French state as an excuse to abduct him. 

Morin’s performance-lecture draws on archival material in an attempt to restore BASTA, remaining as faithful as possible to Ben Barka's intentions and using speculative narratives to suggest what the film would have become. 

Tagged with: Cinema Ambiguous Encounters Project a Black Planet Film Season

Curated by Abiba Coulibaly.

An earlier version of this lecture was originally performed as part of Film Undone – Elements of a Latent Cinema, a programme curated by Philip Widmann. 

Book two or more films in the Project a Black Planet film programme at the same time and get 20% off.

Film information
  • Runtime   90 mins

Léa Morin is an independent curator and researcher. Her work spans editing, exhibition, film programming and restoration. Morin’s focus is on the circulation of ideas, forms, aesthetics, and political and artistic struggles in the period of independence movements and in the stakes of cultural decolonization. She is part of the Archive Bouanani in Rabat, and Talitha in Rennes. She was also director at Cinématheque de Tanger, and co-founder of l’Observatoire in Casablanca.

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Cinema 1

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