"A Case for Restitution in 5 Films" is a film series curated by Nigerian filmmaker and independent film curator Tobi Akinde screened at the Ethnographic Museum UZH in Spring 2025, in connection with the exhibition "Benin Dues" and its topics of provenance and restitution.
For the first instalment, two films present the argument that the call for restitution is not a 21st century occurrence. The screening will be followed by a talk with Tobi Akinde.
(Film 1/5)
Film by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais, France, 1950, 30’; Language: French; English subtitles
Statues Also Die
Commissioned by the Paris based Pan African group, Présence Africaine, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais’ "Statues Also Die" is an early critique of the devastating impact of French colonialism and commodification of African art. In a powerful introductory scene, a woman of African descent stands face to face with locked up African masks and figural sculptures in a museum in Paris, mirroring broader pattern of colonial dislocation and dehumanisation.
Using witty poetry, formal yet visceral imagery, "Statues Also Die" remains a powerful commentary to the fate of potent arts reduced to a museum object, and projections of power and conquest.
(Film 2/5)
Film by Nii Kwate-Owoo, Ghana, 1970, 16’; Language: English; English subtitles
You Hide Me
In 1970, Ghanaian filmmaker Nii Kwate-Owoo, a student at the London Film School, managed to outsmart the directors of the British Museum and its security system to gain access to the museum’s secret underground vaults and to film valuable African artifacts stowed away there. Shoot clandestinely in one day, "You Hide Me" reveals the extent of the theft of African artifacts, stashed in plastic bags and wooden crates, and make a case for their restitution.
The series' further dates:
Do 03.04.2025
(Film 3/5)
Film by Mati Diop, 2024
Dahomey
Do 08.05.2025
(Film 4/5)
Film by Nora Philippe, 2021
Restitution? Africa's Fight for its Art
Do 05.06.2025
(Film 5/5)
Film by Sembène Ousmane, 1966
Black Girl
