Manthia Diawara

Manthia Diawara

Birthday: 1953-12-19

Place of Birth: Bamako, Mali

Biography: Manthia Diawara is a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian. His essays on art, cinema, and politics have appeared in The New Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart, and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema. Diawara’s notable films include An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2016), Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008), Rouch In Reverse (1995), AI: African Intelligence (2023), and Angela Davis: A World of Wider Freedom (2024).

Movies

AI: African Intelligence
AI: African Intelligence

AI: African Intelligence explores the contact zones between African rituals of possession within tra...

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A Letter from Yene
A Letter from Yene

In Senegal, Yene was traditionally a seaside town with many fishermen and farmers but has in recent ...

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Rouch in Reverse
Rouch in Reverse

Malian filmmaker and New York University professor, Manthia Diawara critiques visual anthropology th...

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An Opera of the World
An Opera of the World

In An Opera of the World, Malian scholar and filmmaker Manthia Diawara reflects upon the refugee cri...

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Praise Song
Praise Song

“In 2015, Jason Silverman and Samba Gadjigo released the acclaimed feature documentary SEMBÈNE!, on ...

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Manthia Diawara on 'Black Girl'
Manthia Diawara on 'Black Girl'

Conducted in 2016, this interview with filmmaker and cultural theorist Manthia Diawara (“African Cin...

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Manthia Diawara on 'Borom Sarret'
Manthia Diawara on 'Borom Sarret'

In this 2016 piece, filmmaker and cultural theorist Manthia Diawara (“African Film: New Forms and Ae...

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