Virtual Cinema: Africa on the Seine, L’Envers du décor, A Nation is Born, Lamb

This program of documentary shorts is both a stirring introduction to the Beninese/Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, considered the first sub-Saharan African film director and a rich overview of the period of African independence and nation-building. Vieyra’s 1955 essay film Africa on the Seine (co-directed with Mamadou Sarr) begins on the banks of the Niger but moves quickly to Paris, “the capital of Black Africa.” Combining street photography with a poetic voiceover, Vieyra achieves a remarkable portrait of the African diaspora and a forward-looking paean to racial diversity.