QUANTUM CREOLE / Filipa César
CGI, 16 mm and video, color, sound, 40’
Quantum Creole is an experimental documentary, starting from the colonial ruins of a German palm oil and arsenal factory in the West African Island of Bubaque.
In the beginning was the weave, and the transmission of its workings, a curse of mortality—so ends Quantum Creole with the fabulous words of the Papel weaver, Zé Interpretador.While the Punch-card technology, designed for the textile loom was fundamental for the development of the computer, the binary code is closer to the ancient act of weaving than to that of writing. Quantum Creole is an experimental documentary film of collective research into creolization, addressing its historical, ontological and cultural forces. Referring to the minimum physical entity in any interaction—quantum—the film utilizes different imaging forms to read the subversive potential of weaving as Creole code. West African Creole people wove coded messages of social and political resistance into textiles, countering the colonists’ languages and technologies. As the new face of colonization manifests itself as a digital image, upgrading terra nullius in the form of an ultra-liberal free trade zone in the Bissagos Islands, it also marks the continuation of the violence that erupted several centuries ago with the creation of slave-trading posts in the place then known as the Rivers of Guinea and Cape Verde.
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FESTIVALS
World Premiere at the Berlinale 2020
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CREDITS
With
Chico Indi, Diana McCarty, Fátima Silva, Filipa César, Joana Barrios, Marinho Pina, Mark Waschke, Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Nelly Yaa Pinkrah, Odete da Costa Semedo, Olivier Marboeuf, Rampa, Sadjo Sambu, Saliha Podingo von Medem, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun · Zé Interpretador.
All texts by the protagonists, except for Joana Barrios and Mark Waschke written by Filipa César
Cinematography : Matthias Biber, Filipa César and Jenny Lou Ziegel
Convening and montage : Filipa César
Sound design : Jin Mustafa and Gabor Ripli
Scenography "Architextile n. 2" : Lorenzo Sandoval
Producers : Michel Balagué, Filipa César and Olivier Marboeuf
Executive production : Alima de Graf
DoP assistant : Matze Börner and Tiago Seide
Image performance : Pedro Maia
Sound mix : Gabor Ripli
Colorist : Sergi Sánchez
CGI : Harry Sanderson
Subtitles and translation : Raúl Gil, Diana McCarty, José António Oliveira, Louezley Só, Joana Vaz Sousa and Ivan Ricciulli
Production : Volte ; Spectre Productions
Co-commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Das Neue Alphabet) ; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian ; Tabakalera
Curators : Bernd Scherer, Olga Schubert, Leonor Nazaré and Ane Rodríguez Armendariz
Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Tabakalera, DICRéAM, CNC, Instituto Camões Berlim, Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), IBAP - Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas
Thanks to
Bernd Scherer, Olga Schubert, Leonor Nazaré, Ane Rodríguez Armendariz, Super Camarimba, Teresa de Turegano, Ana Patrícia Severino, Suleimane Biai, Fátima Silva, Justino Biai, Lay Seck, Koletivu Cadjigue, Chiara Figone, Teresa Montenegro, Rosa César Waschke, Luís Guilherme Dias and Sana na N'Hada
And to all the weavers of the Looming Creole programme for conceiving this project together with the material/immaterial, past/future and real/digital entities that were called upon in the process.