Bronwyn Averett

  • because it was there…

    Hi, how are you today? I’m fine, you know, surviving the sudden blizzard, rocking some Boubacar Traoré, and…oh yeah…wait…not fine at all – eating puréed lentils!!! Why, you ask? Gentle reader, (is that phrase trademarked? can I use that?) because I lost my mind for about five minutes and decided that lentil soup was fine, Read more

  • RIDM Screening 122: Atalaku

    Directed by Dieudo Hammadi, Atalaku is set during the latest elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1422763033/ Here’s a quick timeline: 1960: Patrice Lumumba becomes the first Prime Minister of the newly independent Republic of Congo (the one that becomes the DRC, not the other one). He is deposed by the president, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, and Read more

  • RIDM Screening 84: A jamais, pour toujours

    Confession: I am basically posting this for good form, because it is a documentary that I saw, and thus feel obligated to include it in the series. (Plus, duh, I like bragging about all these awesome films I’m seeing. Aren’t you tempted to move to Montreal now so you can watch great documentaries and go Read more

  • RIDM Screening 69: Ayiti Toma

    Focusing on foreign aid (before and after the earthquake), the slave trade and colonialism, and vodou in Haiti, this documentary provides a far-reaching scope of a complex society. If there is one flaw the film suffered from it was the ambitious attempt to cover everything. How can you not try to cover everything when you’re Read more

  • RIDM Screening 30: The Square

    This was my first screening so far of the  Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal and I can safely say that it was fantastic way to start. First, a word on the festival: Since 1998, the RIDM has been bringing filmmakers from Quebec, and from around the world, to the city of Montreal for about a Read more

  • Maryse Condé, desire, return

    If you’re familiar with Guadeloupian writer  Maryse Condé, you might also be familiar with the striking similarities between the female protagonists in both En attendant le Bonheur (originally published as Heremakhonon, 1976) and Histoire de la femme cannibale (2005). Both Véronica of the former title and Rosélie of the latter travel an uprooted Pan-African non-trajectory, originally Read more