Black Girl

Sembène 100

Ousmane Sembène, one of the greatest and most groundbreaking filmmakers who ever lived and the most internationally renowned African director of the twentieth century, made his feature debut in 1966 with the brilliant and stirring Black Girl (La noire de . . .). Sembène, who was also an acclaimed novelist in his native Senegal, transforms a deceptively simple plot—about a young Senegalese woman who moves to France to work for a wealthy white couple and finds that life in their small apartment becomes a figurative and literal prison—into a complex, layered critique on the lingering colonialist mindset of a supposedly postcolonial world.

(Ousmane Sembène, Senegal, French, & Wolof w/ English Subs, 59 min, 1966, DCP)

Free for members (includes all UWM students). $5 for non-members. Memberships can be purchased at the Union Cinema.