RAW Material Company invites you to a screening of the film "Black Girl" by Ousmane Sembène followed by a discussion with artist Alfredo Jaar on Friday November 6th, 2019 at 8pm.

Black Girl (1966), Ousmane Sembène

Diouana is a young Senegalese woman living in a poor village located not far from Dakar in the years following Senegal’s independence. Like many others she wants to find a job. She thus wanders the city’s dwellings looking for a job as a housekeeper or nanny but finds only refusals. She meets a man who tells her of a place where she might find what she’s looking for. After long days spent waiting in the crushing heat with other women, "Madame" comes to find her and proposes she come work for her and her husband as their children’s nanny. Diouana is satisfied with her new job, so it's no surprise when she agrees to follow them to Antibes in France. She hopes to discover the country but soon she understands that her boss has brought her only to serve as a housemaid, destined to do all number of tasks, without respite. Constantly criticized, she is even used as an exotic attraction during a dinner with her bosses’ friends. Diouana is increasingly dehumanized and her growing sadness is interpreted as laziness. Without any contact with her family and no longer finding any hope in her situation, she attempts to regain her stolen freedom.