DCTV Firehouse Cinema

Congo In Harlem 15: COLETTE AND JUSTIN
Tickets: $16 General Admission

(Use the code: mayslesdctv to receive a 20% discount.)
October 6th - 12th – See TICKET link below for specific screenings.

Alain Kassanda, 2022, 89 min. (Lingala and French with English subtitles)

Born in Kinshasa and living in Paris, filmmaker Alain Kassanda embodies the classic immigrant dual identity: in the Democratic Republic of Congo he is seen as French, while in France he is seen as Congolese. Determined to understand the colonial legacy from which he comes, Kassanda convinces his grandparents—Colette and Justin—to sit for a series of interviews. Together, they watch old news footage, remember a visit from the Belgian king, and recall what life was like as part of the nascent Black bourgeoisie who served the colonial administration. But COLETTE AND JUSTIN is more than a film about family reminiscences. Kassanda uses a wealth of black-and-white archival footage to tell the story, superimposing his own thoughts and his grandparents’ voices over the visuals—in effect, using the colonizers’ images against them.

Kassanda, we learn, has two heroes: Justin and inaugural Congolese president Patrice Lumumba, who was murdered by secessionists in collusion with Belgium. While making the film, he realizes their lives were intertwined far more deeply than he had realized.

Beginning as one man’s search to understand himself and his roots, COLETTE AND JUSTIN is ultimately an evocative and thoughtful meditation on the intersection of political and family history, and the multi-generational destructive reach of colonialism.

Screening at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

87 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10013. 

Note: The cinema’s entrance is around the corner on White Street between Lafayette and Centre Streets. 

“Powerfully re-employs Belgian colonial footage… Explores the complexities and ambiguities of the colonial reality… A crucial recovery of long-suppressed history.” 
—Documentary Magazine

"The personal scope to the story draws audiences in... Films like this humanize historical events and allow those who lived through them to speak with their own voices. Highly recommended."
—Educational Media Reviews Online

 “Deeply personal, sometimes poetic, sometimes harrowing.”
—Business Doc Europe

Note: Use the code: mayslesdctv to receive a 20% discount.