Concerning Violence is a documentary made and released in 2014. It presents mainly found footage of colonial wars in Africa with a commentary composed of extracts from the writings of Franz Fanon.
It was well received at Festivals, including at Sundance but it also provoked some highly critical comments. Both the documentary, and many of the responses, air views on the anti-colonial movements that led to a continent now composed mainly of independent states but where also the lasting effects of colonial occupations still mar the lives of millions of people. The feature was written and directed by Swedish film-maker, Göran Olsson. He had already made an impact with an earlier documentary, The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975 (2011) which used footage shot by Swedish Journalists of the Black Power Movement in the USA. This later documentary has a similar form, using footage shot by Swedish journalists between 1966 and 1987 charting anti-colonial movements in Africa.
The commentary uses extracts from the opening chapter, ‘Concerning Violence’, and the ‘Conclusion’, in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (Les damnés de la terre, 1963). This article discusses the context in which the filmed footage was recorded; the documentary and its presentation: and the writings of Frantz Fanon which provide the narration.
Much of Africa was colonized by European states, and in a particular ‘scramble for Africa’ after the Berlin Conference of 1984/5. There were already colonial occupations, notably by the French in north Africa and by the British in southern Africa. But other European states joined in with, in many places, large groups of European settlers and frequent brutality including genocidal policies. The most notorious was in the Congo, gifted at the Berlin Conference to the King of the Belgium whose criminal rule was dramatised in Joseph Conrad’s famous novella, Heart of Darkness (1899).
Following World War II, in the 1950s and 1960s many of the occupied territories achieved political independence though often still subjected to neocolonial control. In South Africa an apartheid regime was installed in the one-time British colony. In North Africa it took an extremely violent anti-colonial war in Algeria to achieve independence. Some of the last occupied territories to achieve independence were those under Portuguese occupation, notably Angola and Mozambique. A revolution and regime change in Portugal in 1974 led to late independence for these territories. However, it took until the 1990s for an end to apartheid in South Africa. And the occupation of Palestine, facilitated by the British after World War I, still continues. European powers, as well as North American states, still regularly intervene politically, economically and militarily in parts of Africa.
Concerning Violence Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence.
The opening footage is of Portuguese soldiers conducting terror tactics. Then there is footage of armed freedom fighters making their way through jungle. The commentary commences with words from Franz Fanon, read and shown on-screen;
“Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”
I. Decolonization. With the MPLA in Angola 1974 [People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party / Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola – Partido do Trabalho.
This is footage of an action against the occupiers with a commentary by a reporter accompanying the Freedom Fighters. The MPLA achieved victory and independence in 1974. More quotations stress the national and historical form of decolonisation.
There is footage of white settlers, [playing golf], with African servants in attendance,
“The meeting of two forces, opposed to each other by their very nature”
put simply the conflict involves
“The last shall be first and the first last”
More footage stresses the popular support for the resistance among indigenous peoples.
This runs eight and half minutes.
2. Indifference
Interview with Toderai Mahoni, Ph. D. Rhodesia / Zimbabwe. Conducted in Stockholm 1970.
He was imprisoned and tortured by the Settler-Colonial Government in then Rhodesia; a Government later disowned by the British who colonised the country. Toderai stated that after five years his feelings were ‘indifferent’. Running three minutes.
3. Rhodesia
After footage of settler life-style there is an interview with a white settler planning to leave as the country becomes Zimbabwe and an independent African state. The man’s racist views are obvious. Running just over three minutes.
4. A World Cut in Two
Over footage of the white settler world and the indigenous black world the commentary draws comparisons between the white settler town – spacious, brightly lit, well resourced: and the black shanty town, cramp, unhygienic, and poverty stricken.
“The colonized man is an envious man …”
waiting to take the white man’s place.
The footage is from colonial Rhodesia and is followed by an interview with Robert Mugabe of ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) on the eve of an independent Zimbabwe of which he will be the leader. Running five minutes.
5. LAMCO, Liberia 1966
“A strike has erupted at Swedish-American [i.e. USA] mining company LAMCO’s site in Nimba.
A Swedish television team happen to be present.” [Liberian-American-Swedish Mining Company].
We hear from the journalists and the two sides: LAMCO Management, the President of Liberia and a military commander: and from Union leaders and ordinary workers. [All speak English but are also subtitled]. LAMCO is supported by the Liberian government and military. The strike is well supported; but union leaders are arrested and sent to prison: and the strike ends as workers are forced back. A number of ‘troublemakers’ are deported by the military; we see one who with his family is dumped out in the open as night falls.
The commentary notes,
“You are rich because you are white.
You are white because you are rich.”
The supposedly independent government of Liberia are recruited by foreign capital; typical of neocolonial situations. Note, Liberia was created as a space for African-Americans to return to Africa from the USA; however, this led to the suppression of indigenous peoples. It has been dominated by the USA for most of its history. This runs for ten minutes.
6. That Poverty of Spirit
Over footage of an African village the commentary offers;
“Native Society is not simply described as a society lacking in values. The native is …
insensible to ethics; he represents the absence of values, but also the negation of values.”
Footage of black people is followed with an interview with two European missionaries in Tanzania shortly after independence. As they speak black men can be seen in the background working on what is planned to be a church. One question refers to polygamy among the natives and the missionaries’ requirement of ‘one wife’ only.
There is footage of African women and the comments stress the importance of ‘land’.
“For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost, the land. The land which will bring them bread, and above all, dignity.”
Then footage of armed fighters in uniforms,
“The colonized man will first manifest this aggressiveness which has been deposited in his bones against his own people.”
There are comments about the colonial bourgeoisie with footage of Freedom Fighters. There is footage of foreign capital and mining and oil extraction. Then footage of white settlers with a reference to ‘apartheid. This ends with black mercenaries wielding machete,
“His dreams are of action and aggression.”
Runs twelve minutes.
7. The Fiat G.91. With the FRELIMO in Mozambique 1972.
This opens with women singing, members of FRELIMO, and then one comments
“We will not go back; the revolution is going forward…”
There follows footage of FRELIMO fighters; first news reports on the audio track and then a statement by FRELIMO.
“We return to women in the bush, driven there by Portuguese terror tactics and now joined in FRELIMO.”
Planes fly overhead. A FRELIMO spokesperson explains that these are Fiat G.91 planes [Italian fighter-bomber] supplied by NATO and used to drop ordinance including napalm. There is inserted footage of air strikes with explosives.
A journalist is heard reporting on Portuguese tactics; they rely on planes and helicopters and there are scenes of Portuguese soldiers wounded in firefights.
We return to the FRELIMO women, and one explains that they are
“On the same level as men.”
They sing again and then there is an interview with a young FRELIMO health worker.
The commentary points to the need
“To bring into existence the history of the nation, the history of decolonization …
[and states] the peasants alone are revolutionary.”
The section ends with shots of a young mother and child both of whom have lost a limb in a Portuguese attack; the camera views them silently. Runs fourteen minutes.
8. Defeat – Guinea-Bissau War of Independence
This opens with Freedom Fighters in the jungle with natural sound. Gunfire, then cut to Portuguese soldiers, including the wounded. A plaintiff song accompanies close-ups of individual soldiers.
There follows an interview with Antonio di Spinola, Military Governor of Guinea-Bissau, clearly out of touch with the consciousness of the indigenous population.
A shot of a woman African radio operator with the quotation,
“The colonized man finds his freedom thorough violence. At the level of individuals violence is a cleansing force.”
Shots of a jungle encampment and the treatment of a wounded fighter.
Then black and white footage of an interview with Amilcar Cabral, Leader of PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau. [Partido African para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde / African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. Amílcar was a major political activist and theorist, influential in the Pan-African discourse. He was assassinated shortly before independence in a coup that possibly included Portuguese influence. Later the potential union between Guinea and Cape Verde was broken. Amílcar comments,
“We consider that independence will allow us to develop our own culture, to develop ourselves and our country. By the delivery of our people from misery, suffering, ignorance …”
Runs eight minutes.
9. Raw Materials
Over shots of mines, diamonds, columns of trucks, and timber production the commentary points out how colonization has developed from the theft of raw materials to the expropriation through the development of markets, with private capital protected by occupation or neocolonial domination.
“Deportations, massacres, forced labour and slavery have been the main methods used by capitalism to increase its wealth.”
There is a comparison with the Third Reich in Europe, using the methods of colonialism, but which has been followed by massive reparations; a policy not applied in decolonization.
There are shots of markets and
“Europe is literally the creation of the Third World.”
Shots of rivers and boats lead to
“The well-being and the progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat and the dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs, Indians and the Asian races.”
Then a well and the planting of a sapling followed by an interview with Thomas Sankara, President of Burkino Faso in 1987.
He comments
“I believe in the people as strength, as a force…”
and criticises the policies of the International Monetary Fund and what he terms ‘beggar mentality’.
An on-screen title states that Sankara was assassinated in a coup with the complicity of European and U.S. governments. He remains an icon of the Pan-African movement.
There is a track along a long line of African refugees followed by shots of oil rigs and then fighters patrolling a river.
Conclusion – taken from the final chapter of The Wretched of the Earth.
Here Fanon addresses his comrades, arguing that they must not try to follow the path of Europe. He refers to the USA which followed the path of Europe successfully and is now ‘a monster’.
There are shots of a mass meeting in the jungle and Fanon calls on his comrades to find new paths;
“So, comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions, and societies, which draw their inspiration from her. Humanity is waiting for something other from us. If we want to turn Africa into a new Europe, then let us leave the destiny of our countries to Europeans. They will know how to do it better than the most gifted among us. But if we want humanity to advance a step further, if we want to bring it up to a different level that which Europe has shown, then we must invent and we must make discoveries. For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new human being.”
Followed by end credits.
The Film’s Production.
The direct production is by Story, an independent production company who also produced The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975. As is common, there are several other production companies involved and also the support of the Swedish Film Institute, Swedish Television, the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Programme, and other Scandinavian Film Agencies.
The documentary relies on extensive footage researched and edited from television footage by radically minded Swedish journalists in the 1960s and 1970s covering struggles for independence in Africa. Ingrid Dahlberg, Lars Hjelm & Roland Hjelte/Svart vecka i Nimba (1966): Bo Bjelfvenstam & Jörgen Persson/Vita myror (1969): Lis Asklund/Interview with Tonderai Makoni (1970): Lennart Malmer & Ingela Romare/En nations födelse – I vårt land börjar kulorna att blomma (1973) – Mozambique är vårt land (1973) – Guinea Bissau, en före detta portugisisk koloni (1974): Lennart Malmer & Per Källberg/Vredens poesi (1981): Leyla Assaf Tengroth & Ulf Simonsson/Interview with Thomas Sankara (1987). This was selected and edited by the director together with Michael Aaglund, Dino Jonsäter, and Sophie Vukovic) Additional footage, including the credits and on-screen-titling was shot by an additional team of cinematographers.
The sound track includes natural sound and dialogue from the found footage: dialogue in the sequences and in the interviews: songs, both African and Portuguese, though these are not generally translated: accompanying music at times: the languages heard include English, Swedish, French, Portuguese with subtitling in the English-language release. But the soundtrack is dominated by the commentary, presumably selected by the director from the opening and closing chapters of Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. In the English-language version the commentary is read by Lauryn Hill, who is a successful and well known rap artist in the USA; she is known for radical political positions. She apparently also recorded some other language versions of the commentary but in the Swedish release version this is read by Kati Outinen, an actress who has appeared in several independent films.
Note, IMDB credits include the names of most of the people heard speaking in the various scenes.
Responses and Commentaries.
The documentary has an introductory preface by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, an academic from India. She is noted for writings on the colonial subjects especially those termed ‘subaltern’, a concept found in the writing of Antonio Gramsci referring to social groups excluded from power and citizenship. Spivak’s writings are complex and challenging and have led to arguments about her exact position on certain issues. Spivak briefly explain Fanon and comments on his ideas as found in the film. However, her interpretation is questionable. At one point she brings in Mahatma Gandhi as a possible addition to Fanon’s ideas; Gandhi not only espoused non-violence, he absolutely opposed the use of violence by the colonised, even in self-defence.
Fanon writes sardonically regarding the colonialist bourgeoisie in the opening chapter,
“non-violence is an attempt to settle the colonial problem around a green baize table, before any regrettable act has been performed or irreparable gesture made, before any blood has been shed.”
Spivak also ‘corrects’ Fanon as not giving due place to the role of women. The latter point ignores that Fanon is writing in the common terminology of the period and that he explicitly argues for the equality of women in the anti-colonial struggle.
A more balanced discussion of the film is offered by Bhakti Shringarpure in The Guardian in July 2014. He argues that Fanon, and indeed this film, emphasise the violence of the colonizers to which the Freedom Fighters respond with the violence of resistance. Shringarpure also makes the point that Fanon’s writings have to be read in the context of the National Liberation Struggle in Algeria. He notes this is something missing from the film. Both points are often overlooked by academic comments.
The Dogwoof DVD in Britain carries extras including a recording of a Q & A by the director with Sara Myers at the Curzon Soho. Sara asked the first question regarding the footage used in the documentary. In his response Olson stated that he
“Read the first chapter … read the last chapter …. and skipped the middle …’
of Fanon’s book. There may have been more study of the book during the production but in the final version only the same first and last chapters are covered. Part of what this leads to was raised in another question by an unnamed man who identified as an Irish-American. He questioned the choice of Spivak’s preface to the film, questioning
“the way she tries to push out the idea of a class and that at least in Fanon and he makes it very clear, and reiterates it again and again, the danger of the native bourgeoisie, the comprador, and when you look at these countries like Angola, Mozambique, Burkino Faso now, that a lot of the problems she rightly identifies don’t necessarily from the peasants who took up arms and who Fanon identifies as the revolutionary force but from these native bourgeoisie who captured the movement at the moment of independence or when the movement when they were forced to make ceasefires with colonial powers”
[There is a distinction between ‘native or nationalist bourgeoisie’ and comprador bourgeoisie’, the latter tied to the capitalist class in neo-colonial states].
Olson responded by stating his agreement with Spivak. He noted that the original edition of Fanon’s book included a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre which was much criticized and later withdrawn. And he referred to Spivak’s comments regarding women with an example from the practices in FRELIMO.
But if one reads Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth there are four whole chapters not presented in the documentary and major part of his analysis and argument that are omitted.
Most of the comments on ‘Concerning Violence’ and much of the comment on Fanon’s book suffers from the same problem. ‘Concerning Violence’ is the first chapter and only forty eight pages in a book of 6 chapters and two hundred and twenty two pages. Other parts of the book are equally important and provide a general context in to which the treatment of violence needs to be sited.
Fanon’s Writings and Politics.
Franz Fanon was born in the French dependencies of Martinique. He worked in France as a psychiatrist but was appalled by French racism. He worked briefly in Senegal and then in Algeria where he became a member of the FLN (The National Liberation Front / Front de libération nationale) and a leading spokesperson.
Fanon wrote the book is his last days, dying from Leukaemia, and dictated it to his wife. The language of the book is the language of the time; so, he refers commonly to “the native”: he typically uses male nouns and pronouns, even a couple of time “nigger”: he also uses the terms found in the analysis of Karl Marx and Frederik Engels, clearly an important influence. There is the influence of Aimé Césaire, also from Martinique. He was a poet, writer and political activist. He was a mentor to the young Fanon. He actively opposed French colonialism and racism but was less radical than Fanon on the issue of independence. Fanon published several books, his first, Black Skin, White Masks (1952), an analysis of the negative psychological effects of colonial subjugation upon black people.
The Wretched of the Earth covers much wider ground than the opening chapter; though that chapter contains references developed later in the book. The documentary offers little sense of this even though it concludes with a long extract from the ‘Conclusion’. Also, the extracts are often edited though this is not apparent in the on-screen titling. So ‘Concerning Violence’ opens with the following line;
“National liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of nationhood to the people, commonwealth: whatever may be the heading used or the new formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.”
The whole issue of ‘national’ and’ national consciousness’ is central to the book but with little sense of this in the documentary.
‘Concerning Violence’ has a sub-title of ‘Violence in the International Context’.
Chapter 1. Concerning Violence
The chapter is mainly about the process of decolonization. And it comments on the different classes involved in liberation; Fanon is very critical of the indigenous [colonialist] bourgeoisie and of the intellectuals: he sees the proletariat and working class organisations as mainly undeveloped: and he sees the peasantry as the class most likely to fight the colonizers,
“This is why Marxist analysis should be slightly stretched every time we have to do with the colonial problem.”
He ends by referring to the international aspect, in particular Europe the centre at that time of colonisers. Fanon assumes that such struggles are national in form; the context set by the colonial redrawing of maps. And he uses the term ‘Third World’, a term that appeared in the early 1950s referring to the first dominant capitalist world; the second socialist world: and the third of what were then termed non-aligned countries. The term ‘Third World’, like the contemporary terms ‘Global South’ or ‘undeveloped countries’ are rather unsatisfactory. I prefer to use the politically conscious ‘oppressed peoples and nations’. Both colonialism and neocolonialism enforce their exploitation by economic and political methods which are, ultimately, backed up by naked force.
Fanon writes mainly about colonial occupations, the situation in the Algerian National Liberation Struggle. However, he does comment on what is termed neo-colonialism, the absence of direct occupation. The forms of exploitation and oppression have developed since he wrote. European colonialism developed over centuries, reaching its greatest reach in the late C19th, much of it under the control of Britain. It was in this period that there developed imperialism; a global system which operated through the dominance of finance capital.
Thus, today the hegemonic power, the U.S., relies on institution like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and by the dominance of the U.S. dollar as the international currency. Within this there are countries that have freed themselves from direct colonial occupation but which are dominated as neocolonial. And, despite the use by some academics of the term ‘post-colonial’, there remain a number of direct colonial occupations: Britain in the north of Ireland: the USA, on Guantanamo in Cuba and, courtesy of Britain, in Diego Garcia: France in several dependencies in the Caribbean and Pacific: Spain with an enclave in North Africa.
Chapter 2. Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness. Thirty four pages
Discusses the weaknesses of the different classes. The peasantry incline to spontaneous action whereas the struggle requires a set of aims and plans. But Fanon also criticises both organs like the trade unions, or indigenous nationalist parties that often fail to pursue the struggle to a full completion.
Chapter 3 The Pitfalls of National Consciousness. Forty seven pages
This concentrates on the limitations of the national bourgeoisie. And Fanon pursues the argument to their role once independence has been achieved; warning against compromises with the colonisers: and with such parties developing autocratic rather than democratic forms. He also stresses the importance of youth and [contra Spivak] the importance of women’s equal involvement in the struggle.
Chapter 4. On National Culture. 24 pages
Subtitles Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom.
Fanon sees a national culture as the whole expression of the colonized people; note, he also writes about the wider culture, pan-Arab or Pan-African. He writes in particular how art and intellectual activity contribute to such a national culture. In a very influential section, he argues that whilst this is dynamic one can abstract three phases: in the first phase art and culture is dominated by that of the colonisers: in the second phase there is a search for a traditional culture: but in the third phase there is a ‘fighting phase’, awakening the people. He gives as an example of the last a poem from Guinea, ‘African Dawn by Keita Fodeba, which dramatises the story of Naman, a native recruited for the French military in World War II, who was killed in a massacre when African tirailleurs rebelled for equal pay. This idea of phases was influential in the gestation of a movement in Latin-America for a Third Cinema; where First cinema was the dominant cinema; Second cinema was the cinema of auteurs, [a change from Fanon’s sense]; and the Third a fighting cinema completely opposing the world of the colonisers and imperialists.
Chapter 5 Colonial Wars and Mental Disorders. Forty four pages
This draws on Fanon’s work as a psychiatrist with numerous examples of the mental disorders produced by the colonial experience, including torture. He also includes an example of a mental disorder in a foot soldier of the colonisers due to his practise in torture. The examples are detailed and often record horrific experience.
Chapter 6. Conclusion only four pages
This is an exhortation to take up the struggle and the methods set out in the book.
The Manifesto on Third Cinema is one way that Fanon’s ideas have been influential.
So, a good example of First or dominant cinema would the 2021 ‘The Mauritanian’. This details the experiences of a victim, Mohammad Shafi, of the U.S. policies of rendition and the Guantanamo Detention facility. When compared with the published diaries of Muhammad Shafi it is clear that the mainstream convention and the use of mainstream stars has considerably diluted his story.
An example of second or auteur cinema would be the BBC series, ‘Corridors of Power’. This details the response of U.S. administration to recent conflicts, including colonial conflicts. The series relies on the testimony of people from the administrations, including critical voices. Whilst this develops a critique of U.S. foreign policy it fails to address the fundamental issues, U.S. Imperialism. And an example of Third Cinema would be by African film-maker Ousmane Sembéne has several films on these struggles; Camp d’Thiaroye (1988 ) dramatises the massacre by the French military addressed in ‘African Dawn’.
Fanon’s writing was very influential at the time. And he represented the FLN at international conferences where the organisation led the move for armed resistance to colonial occupations.
Since his death and Algerian independence his writings have influenced movements like Black Consciousness in apartheid South Africa: the Black Panther Party in the USA: and Che Guevara, involved in the Cuban Revolution. In a world where colonial occupations continue and where neocolonialism is powerful and frequently exceedingly violent his final book in particular offers relevant analysis and theories about the actions to follow.
Fanon’s relevance and films on this.
In particular the wars in occupied Palestine and the resistance of the Palestinian people demonstrates the accuracy of his analysis of settler colonialism and the relevance of his arguments on culture, resistance and the positions of the different classes among an oppressed people.
Palestine bears comparisons in many ways with the colonized Algeria; especially in the use military technology: torture: the violent control of civilians: and the use of collective punishment as a weapon of war. Equally the way the Zionist occupiers view and address Palestinians echoes the denial of values to their lives and culture.
In particular Palestinian culture reflects Fanon’s ideas on a national culture; this can be seen in vibrant cultural forms like art, dance, music and film. Cinema has long been a cultural weapon in the Palestinian resistance. From the 1960s to the 1980s a PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation] Film Unit produced a series of newsreel, documentaries and agit props. In 1987 we find a film such as Wedding in Galilee, set before the extension of the Zionist settlement in 1967, and dramatising a central cultural event where Israeli repression and Palestinian resistance meet. The film sits somewhere between Second or auteur cinema and Third of fighting cinema.
In January 2025 a new Palestinian documentary, No Other Land, details Palestinian resistance to ‘land theft’ by the Zionist settlers, is another fighting film. This last title was an example of how Europe [and Britain] are still in the thralls of colonialism; when screened at the Berlinale Film Festival it was subjected to attacks supporting the occupation, and now, active war on Palestinians.
The documentary Concerning Violence is best characterised as second or auteur cinema. It is very much the product of the director; the view of Fanon is shaped by him: and the view of decolonization in the visual material is also shaped by him. There are many film studies of anti-colonial struggles. Many express sympathies or even support for the struggles. But many, as with this film, fail to break free from the dominant values in first cinema. Thus, the preface by Spivak waters down Fanon’s arguments. The quotation is restricted to parts of the book omitting major analysis. So, class, the changing forms of colonialism: and the strategies of decolonization are not directly presented. In particular, Fanon’s discussion of consciousness among the oppressed is missing.
As for the film footage; unless one could visit the Swedish archive, it is not possible to tell what other material would have helped the film. In particular, the interview with Thomas Sankara suggest that he was likely talking about consciousness and at greater length.
Given these limitations the documentary does present analysis and visual material not commonly encountered in commercial cinema. And the audience responses, including during the Curzon Q & A point to a clear impact on at least some in audiences. How many might have actually read Fanon as a result is impossible to tell.
There are other films, including from the oppressed people and nations, that address the anti-colonial struggles and the ideas of Fanon. These tend to be rather overwhelmed by the products of dominant cinema. But apart from cinemas there are also opportunities on video, streaming and the internet.
Exterminate All the Brutes (reviewed in MEJ ) is a four part documentary, originally screened on HBO which examines the record of colonialism and provides extensive material on the violence perpetrated by Europe and North America. Sissako’s Bamako (The Court, 2006) offers and interesting treatment of neocolonialism; presenting a trial of the institutions of the advances capitalist states, like the World Bank, and illustrated by the experiences of individuals suffering from these exploitative policies. Isaac Julien’s documentary Franz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (1995) is a study of Franz Fanon and his 1952 book..
And there are other films that address anti-colonial struggles elsewhere in Africa, In Asia, Australasia and in Central and South America. The Blog, Third Cinema Revisited, has reviews of many of these. In television and streaming the Al Jazeera has an amount of such material with several language stations including English in Britain on Freeview 251, and with a set of web-pages with both news and documentaries on the history and contemporary world.
