Paper short abstract:

Rina Sherman shows us what Paris looks like after seven years of fieldwork, spent filming and photographing the Ovahimba people of Namibia and Angola. The death of three close friends, Jean Rouch, mentor and friend, Didier Contant, grand reporter and soul mate, the Headman of Etanga, father of my life, coincided with this return. It was a time during which returning and mourning were inextricably entangled. I was constantly thinking of my Ovahimba friends, whom I would see on the screen every day as I edited the films about my stay with them. Between periods of filming in Paris, I travelled to Algiers, Cape Town, Etanga (Namibia), filming all the while, and one morning overlooking the Bay of Algiers, I imagined an axis linking Paris, Cape Town, Etanga and North Africa, and hence the great circle of exile from South Africa that started in 1984 was finally closed. 49’ film

Paper long abstract:

I depict how I saw Paris on my return from a seven year sojourn with the Ovahimba of Namibia.

To the amazement and the disarray of such a return, was added the death of three friends, Jean Rouch, mentor, Didier Contant, grand reporter, the Headman of Etanga, father of my life.

I renew ties with Paris, city in which I settled when I left South Africa for exile in 1984, by returning to familiar places and discovering new ones.

The re-establishment of the dignity of journalist Didier Contant, who died during his investigation into the assassination of the Monks of Tibhirine in Algeria in 1996, marked this period. I trace the evolution of this process that lead me to publish the book, « Le huitième mort de Tibhirine », and to visit North Africa for the first time.

A time during which returning and mourning became entangled, a time during which I was constantly thinking of my Ovahimba friends, whom I would see on the screen every day as I edited films about my stay with them.

Between periods of filming in Paris, I travelled to Algiers, Cape Town, Etanga (Namibia), filming all the while, and one morning overlooking the Bay of Algiers, I imagined a link between Paris, Cape Town, Etanga and North Africa, and hence the circle of exile that started in 1984 was finally closed.

This film is an I-Fiction - reality provides the elements with which to narrate the doings of an inner state.

49’ film