Focus on West African Women

The Harvard Film Archive features works by director Rosine Mbakam

A hairdresser meticulously braiding a client's hair in a vibrant salon, using a candle to seal the ends.

From the film Chez Jolie Coiffure | COURTESY OF ICARUS FILMS

The Harvard Film Archive screens the complete works of this year’s McMillan-Stewart Fellow, filmmaker Rosine Mbakam (January 27-February 9). Born in Cameroon and based in Belgium, Mbakam will be on hand February 8 and 9 to discuss her documentaries, shorts, and her latest feature, Mambar Pierrette (2023), which follows a Cameroonian seamstress and single mother struggling to keep her life afloat. Mbakam’s works reflect timeless recurring themes inherent to women’s lives, intergenerational shifts, and the immigration experience. The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (2016) documents her own return trip to Cameroon after a seven-year absence, while Delphine’s Prayers (2021) offers an intimate portrait of a Cameroonian sex worker and her efforts to face, and transcend, daily challenges. You Will Be My Ally, Prism, and Chez Jolie Coiffure will also be screened. (For further details, visit the Harvard Film Archive.)


 

Click here for the January-February 2025 issue table of contents

You might also like

Rendering Dreams in Art

South Korean artist’s socially themed photographs at the Peabody Essex Museum

The Shape of Sound

Jessica Shand blends math and music.

Basking in the Beaux-Arts

Park offers art, nature, and history in New Hampshire

Most popular

This is How Universities Die

Higher ed thrived in Berlin and Beijing. Then government stepped in. 

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps the University has taken, and emphasizes compliance with the law.

FAS Dean Outlines Preparations for Loss of Federal Funding

“To preserve our mission, we must act now,” Hoekstra says at faculty meeting

Explore More From Current Issue

The Franklin Stove—A Historical Climate Change Adaptation

Historian Joyce E. Chaplin reinterprets an early era of invention, industrialization, and climate challenge

Publications by Harvard Authors Spring 2025: New Releases

Operatic counterculture, a Passover graphic novel, James Joyce’s biographer, and more