Becoming a Black Woman
In collaboration with the Consulate General of Switzerland in Montreal, as part of their Swiss Film Club Canada, we regularly present significant works from contemporary Swiss cinema. This month, we feature a film that particularly highlights the diversity of perspectives and voices in modern Swiss society.
In the presence of filmmaker Rachel M'Bon
Winner of a Swiss Film Award in 2023
In a country of consensus denying its structural racism, Swiss black women share their most intimate traumas and identity quests and raise their voices. In this context, Rachel, a Swiss-Congolese journalist, goes in search of her black identity by interviewing her peers.
Rachel M'Bon
Rachel M'Bon, born in Switzerland to a Congolese father and a Swiss mother, is a journalist and filmmaker. After a federal diploma in communications and studies in journalism, she worked for over 15 years, for several Swiss media groups in the society and culture section. In 2018, she launched the Instagram account NOIRES to highlight black and brown women in Switzerland, which would later become the account of her association NWAR (Now we are Rising). Her first film, Becoming a Black Woman, co-directed with Juliana Fanjul, premiered at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in March 2022, exploring themes of identity and the issue of racism. Its success earned it the Swiss Film Prize in March 2023. Rachel is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion, founding NWAR and the Afropea Cultural Center in 2023. In September 2023, she was named one of the 100 personalities of the year by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, and continues to work on filming and writing new stories about black representation. She is currently writing her next film, and continues to reflect on the creation of new narratives on Afro-descendants' representation.
Bio & photo : Rachel M’Bon
Juliana Fanjul
Juliana Fanjul is a director and independent producer born in 1981 in Mexico. She graduated from EICTV (International Cinema and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños) documentary department. She has a Master in Cinema Studies from the joint programme between ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne) and HEAD (Haute École d’Art et Design in Geneva). Her feature films Muchachas (2015), Radio Silence (2019) and Becoming a Black Woman (2022) have been screened and awarded at numerous international festivals. In codirection with Rachel M’Bon, Becoming a Black Woman (2022), which premiered at the FIFDH, won the Swiss Film Prize for Best Short Film. Juliana Fanjul is also a teacher and has been head of the documentary chair at the Cuban Film School since 2020.
Presented in collaboration with
