‘Meet the Director: Vincent Meessen - Screening Just a Movement’

Vincent Meessen will present his latest film, Just a movement, a free adaptation of La Chinoise by Jean-Luc Godard (1967), which followed five Parisian students as they proclaimed the revolution, clutching Mao’s Little Red Book. Meessen’s version takes place in Dakar, 50 years later. The main character is Omar Blondin Diop, the only actual Maoist student in the original film. He allegedly committed suicide in his Gorée Island prison cell. His family and friends are convinced otherwise and demand that light be shed on this political crime. Haunted by a ghost, the Senegalese capital is in turmoil.​​​​

Born in the United States in 1971, Meessen lives and works in Brussels. As an artist and filmmaker, Meessen examines the different ways in which colonial modernity has influenced present-day subjectivities. Vincent Meessen shows a site-specific installation version of Just a Movement at the 34th Bienal de São Paulo.

The film screening will be followed by a discussion (in French) between Vincent Meessen (director) and Djia Mambu (journalist and film critic).

The event is organised in partnership with Thank you and Good Night Productions and Jubilee.