For if the last shall be first,
this will only come to pass
after a murderous and decisive struggle
between the two protagonists.
That affirmed intention
to place the last at the head of things
can only triumph if we use
all means to turn the scale
including, of course,
that, of violence.
-The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon-
With what surrounds us everywhere, it is timely to understand the roots of violence in all its complexities, beyond symptoms of violence, binaries of oppressed and oppressor. In India, it appears that events of 1947 were illusory, the process of de-colonisation yet incomplete. Those who are last continue to be murdered, Fanon reminds us of the process of de-colonise and how to de-colonise by all means available. The film presents the most daring moments in the struggle for liberation from colonial rule.
Concerning Violence | 24th Jan | 7 pm | Maraa terrace
“Seen in archive footage from the late 1980s, the incredulity with which a white South African speaks of the attitude shift amongst black South Africans is nauseating to watch; “they think they’re going to own houses and cars!” he exclaims, revealing his inherent classification of non-whites as essentially non-human. Such acute moments of ideological, as well as physical violence are essential to the power of Olsson’s Concerning Violence, to demonstrate the core intent and urgency behind the struggle for liberation in the Third World. Narrated by Lauryn Hill from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Concerning Violence is a deeply textural, efficiently emotive and essential cinematic essay.”
