Rumba rules : new genealogies
The mission of the Centre d'art et essai de la Cinémathèque québécoise (CAECQ) is to primary program Quebec-made documentaries and independent fiction, as well as international documentaries, animated and foreign films, while encouraging opportunities for meetings between the public and the artists. Its programming is presented in conjunction with the Cinémathèque québécoise’s under the label New releases.
Permeating the daily life of one of the great orchestras of the current generation, Rumba Rules proposes an incursion into the arcanes of a monumental African music. Ya Mayi, Lumumba, Xéna La Guerrière, Pitchou Travolta, Alfred Solo, Soleil Patron and many others: nearly thirty artists feed the creative life of the Brigade Sarbati Orchestra. By entering the group and the city of Kinshasa, the film gets into the rumba as if it were penetrating a rootstock. Through studio work, rehearsals and concerts, different portraits offer a foray into the dynamics and stories of this highly acclaimed Congolese music. From local roots to the patrons from the diaspora, the voices of Rumba Rules polyphony are past and present.
David N. Bernatchez
David N. Bernatchez is a Quebec born filmmaker, writer and producer. As an anthropologist, he does multiply projects about Quebec memories, he has investigated the Congolese music scene since 2004. Whether they focus on music, sports or history, Bernatchez’s projects constantly explores social and narrative structures. His films, performances and lectures had been presented in various contexts and countries.
Photo : Le Soleil
Sammy Baloji
Sammy Baloji is a visual artist and photographer born in Lubumbashi (DR Congo). As a visual artist, Baloji juxtaposes photographic realities, combining past and present, the real and the ideal, to illicit glaring cultural and historical tensions. He explores architecture and the human body as traces of social history, sites of memory, and witnesses to operations of power. He has notably exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2015), Documenta 14 (2017), Musée Pompidou and Paris’ Grand Palais (2020).
Photo: Sophie Nuytten
