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Inspired by our exhibition Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens, this special film series is presented in partnership with African Film Festival.
The premier studio photographer of 20th-century Africa, Seydou Keïta recorded Mali’s evolution from the late 1940s to early 1960s with his camera. And now you can delve deeper into the country’s and diaspora’s stories.
Featuring cinema classics from Mali and beyond, the series expands narratives introduced in Keïta’s iconic portraits. Explore themes of self-fashioning and adornment, faith and family, cosmopolitanism and the mythology of colonialism, the euphoria of the Pan-African independence movement, and the development of postcolonial identity.
Beyond Keïta’s Frame: Shorts Program
Saturday, October 25, 3–5 pm
Featuring short films, this program explores self-fashioning and adornment across the African diaspora. It will be introduced by Catherine E. McKinley, curator of Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens.
Beyond Keïta’s Frame: Finye (The Wind)
Sunday, November 23, 2–4 pm
This vivid social satire tackles the generation gap in postcolonial West Africa, showcasing Mali’s landscape and everyday life.
Beyond Keïta’s Frame: Ernest Cole
Saturday, December 13, 2–4 pm
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole, one of the first Black freelance photographers in South Africa, who took to the streets to reveal life under apartheid.
From the top: Still from Keïta La (Mamadou Tapily, Catherine E. McKinley, and Marc Lesser, 2025, 10 min., 27 sec.). (Image: courtesy of Catherine E. McKinley); Still from Mr. Gele: The Man. The Story. The Craft (Gladys Edeh, 2016, 14 min.). (Image: courtesy of Gladys Edeh); Still from Finye (The Wind) (Souleymane Cissé, 1982, 100 min.). (Image: courtesy of trigon-film); A photograph by Ernest Cole, from Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, a Magnolia Pictures release. © Ernest Cole. (Photo: courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
