Documentaries by Alain Kassanda

Documentaries by Alain Kassanda

3 Episodes

One of the most exciting emerging voices in African cinema, Congolese French filmmaker Alain Kassanda makes immersive, thought-provoking documentaries that connect the lived experiences of everyday people to larger social and political questions. Turning his observant camera on both his grandparents (COLETTE AND JUSTIN), whose lives were shaped by Belgian colonialism, and on Nigeria’s younger generation (TROUBLE SLEEP, COCONUT HEAD GENERATION), Kassanda crafts eloquent, dynamic, politically engaged films that question existing power structures and offer a vital corrective to reductive images of contemporary Africa.

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Documentaries by Alain Kassanda

3 Episodes

  • Trouble Sleep
    42:26
    Trouble Sleep
    Episode 1

    Trouble Sleep

    Episode 1

    Directed by Alain Kassanda • 2020 • France, Nigeria

    This freewheeling urban portrait follows two young men, Fred and Akin, as they navigate the crowded roadways of Ibadan, Nigeria’s third-largest city. Engineering graduate Fred is beginning a new job as a taxi driver, while Akin patrols a busy i...

  • Colette and Justin
    1:32:27
    Colette and Justin
    Episode 2

    Colette and Justin

    Episode 2

    Directed by Alain Kassanda • 2022 • France, Belgium

    Determined to understand the colonial legacy from which he comes, French Congolese filmmaker Alain Kassanda convinces his grandparents, Colette and Justin, to sit for a series of interviews. Together, they watch old news footage, remember a vis...

  • Coconut Head Generation
    1:33:39
    Coconut Head Generation
    Episode 3

    Coconut Head Generation

    Episode 3

    Directed by Alain Kassanda • 2023 • France, Nigeria

    Every Thursday, a group of students from the University of Ibadan, the oldest in Nigeria, organizes a film club, transforming a small lecture hall into a vibrant forum where they develop a critical voice, using cinema as a springboard to discus...

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