Black Documentary Filmmakers Wrestle With ‘Revisiting History,’ ‘Disruption’: We Need to Tell Stories of Those ‘Who Didn’t Have the Voice Before’

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias The disruptive power of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements has shifted the conversation around storytelling about underrepresented and marginalized communities, even as the backlash in the U.S.

and other countries has swung the pendulum to the (far) right, putting many of those gains at risk. But while the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back DEI initiatives are the latest harbinger of a cultural correction that threatens to turn back the clock to a darker past, Black documentary filmmakers at the Joburg Film Festival said they’re looking to seize this moment to disrupt and rethink widely accepted historical narratives, especially around the Black experience. “We’re having so many reckonings, and we’re really trying to contend with histories that have been presented to us, that we’re now saying, ‘We need to disrupt this,’” said the British filmmaker Eloïse King (“The Shadow Scholars”). “We need to recognize that the histories that have been shared…are ones that don’t necessarily belong to us and aren’t necessarily true.” King was taking part in a panel discussion this week at the JBX market in Johannesburg alongside South African filmmakers Sara Chitambo-Hatira (“Black People Don’t Get Depressed”), Naledi Bogacwi (“Banned”) and Mmabatho Montsho (“Blood and Water”).

The conversation, which was presented in collaboration with industry body SWIFT (Sisters Working in Film and Television), spotlighted the efforts of Black documentary filmmakers to reframe narratives around underrepresented and marginalized communities.