Resonance Spiral

“Nothing falls from the sky apart from rain,” says Amílcar Cabral in a tape recording from 1970. The women of the Satna Fai agricultural workers’ collective listen to this historical document stemming from the politician, poet and theoretician; they rest as Cabral demands equality between the sexes, which he sees as essential for shared progress. The setting is the Abotcha building in Malafo, a traditional Balanta village in Guinea-Bissau, which has housed the Mediateca Onshore since 2023. Together with filmmaker Sana na N’Hada and others, since 2011 director Filipa César has been working on reconstructing the audiovisual memory of the country’s liberation movement and making it accessible to the public; artist Marinho de Pina has been involved since 2017. In Resonance Spiral, César and de Pina document the construction of the Abotcha and the agro-poetic practices that take place there, showing dialogues between archive, performing arts and community. At the same time, they grapple with their own position, sharing insights, despairs – and the mud of the mangroves. (Carolin Weidner)

Filipa César, born in Porto in 1975. She studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and at the Faculdade de Belas Artes of the University of Lisbon. In 2008, she completed an MA in art in context at Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2011, she has been researching the origins of the cinema of the African Liberation Movement in Guinea Bissau as a laboratory of decolonising epistemologies. She premiered her first feature-length film Spell Reel at the Forum in 2017, while Quantum Creole was exhibited at Forum Expanded in 2020. She lives and works in Berlin.

Marinho de Pina, filmmaker, transdisciplinary artist, performer, poet, musician and writer. He is currently a research assistant at the Centre for Studies on Socioeconomic Change and Territory in Lisbon doing his PhD on “Sacred Spaces in Bissau”. Since 2017, he has been working on Mediateca Abotcha in Guinea-Bissau with Filipa Cesár, Sana na N’Hada and Suleimane Biai, a programme for the cultural creation of dreams and utopias with the local community there.

Production Anže Peršin, Filipa César. Production company Stenar Projects (Lissabon, Portugal). Directed by Filipa César, Marinho de Pina. Screenplay Sana na N’Hada, Regina Guimarães. Cinematography Jenny Lou Ziegel. Editing Filipa César. Sound design João Polido Gomes. Music Mû Mbana, Demba Djabaté, Marinho de Pina, João Polido Gomes. Executive producer Suleimane Biai. With Bedan na Onça, Bidan Quelenque, Cristina Mendes, Mû Mbana, Nsai Ndiba, Nsa na Tchuto, Pereira na Onça, Pedro na Onça, Sancho Silva, Sana na N’Hada, Satna Fai, Sónia Vaz Borges, Vanessa Fernandes, Community of Malafo.

Films

Filipa César: 2007: Rapport (16 min.), Allee der Kosmonauten (8 min.). 2008: Le passeur (34 min.). 2009: The Four Chambered Heart (29 min.). 2010: Insert (10 min.), Memograma (40 min.), Porto, 1975 (10 min.). 2011: The Embassy (7 min.). 2012: Cuba (10 min., Forum Expanded 2013), Cacheu (10 min.). 2013: Conakry (10 min.). 2014: Mined Soil (32 min.). 2015: Transmission from the Liberated Zones (30 min., Forum Expanded 2016). 2017: Spell Reel (96 min., Forum 2017). 2018: Sunstone (short documentary). 2020: Quantum Creole (short documentary). 2024: Resonance Spiral.

Marinho de Pina: 2024: Resonance Spiral.

Bonus Material