Visual Arts | December 10, 2024

Harvard Film Archive West African Women in Films

The Harvard Film Archive features works by director Rosine Mbakam

From The January-February 2025 Issue

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.)

Published in the January-February 2025 print issue under the headline “Focus on West African Women,” in the Harvard Squared section.

You might also like

A vase of yellow flowers on a table next to an orange and a glass.

Harvard Art Museums restores a rare glimpse of an American master.

A photograph of the inside of the From Iran exhibit at the Harvard Peabody Museum

Tk tk Iran

Artist Azadeh Akhlaghi reconstructs moments of Iranian political upheaval in a series of meticulously staged images.

Label showing the anatomy of a worker bee, featuring a detailed illustration.

Science and art capture the microscopic natural world.

Most popular

A former Harvard College writing tutor changes her mind on LLMs.

A vibrant illustration of a lively indoor gathering, with people eating, talking, and dancing. Abstract shapes representing microbes in pink, purple, and yellow surround the scene, creating a surreal atmosphere.

How Your Social Circle Affects Your Microbiome and Health

The microbiome may be socially exchanged, modulating both health and metabolism.

Professor Cornell William Brooks and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts hold a lively debate on DEI and Project 2025.

Explore More From Current Issue

A smiling elderly man in glasses sits comfortably in a striped armchair.

Harvard Administration

Plus, veteran higher education leader Thomas Ehrlich reflects on university curricula for his 70th reunion

A busy classroom filled with students working at computers, colorful decor, and a bright atmosphere.

Technology

In 2004, a frenzy spread across Harvard Yard in days. Four billion users later, we are only just catching up.

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

Arts & Culture

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.