CineMar | Screening recap: Bafatá Filme Clube (2012) and Q&A with director Silas Tiny

In November, CineMar, the new Lisbon Consortium Film Club, held its second screening: Bafatá Filme Clube, directed by Silas Tiny in 2012. The selection of this film was in partnership with the production company Real Ficção with a focus on the narratives of cinema. 

Set in Bafatá, Guiné-Bissau, the film tells the story of a city club that was once a landmark that served as a gathering place for the local community. Canjajá Mane, an elderly cinema operator reminisces about the days when the cinema was full of people. This is Silas Tiny’s first feature-length documentary, a product of his final project at the Lisbon School of Theatre and Cinema. 

During the Q&A, the filmmaker Silas stated, one must reflect on the current economic and social conditions of Bafatá, and its effects of the independence in a postcolonialist era. Bafatá Filme Clube was filmed in one of the biggest cities in Guiné-Bissau, which is also the place where the revolutionary and anti-colonial leader Amílcar Cabral was born. As Canjajá Mane walks in the streets of Bafatá, the film invites the audience to digest the current conditions of a place that was once in constant movement. 

Silas approach to storytelling engages the audience in paying close attention to the way the film depicts the day-to-day life of the local community. The once-grand cinema, now in a state of decay, is characterized by a profound stillness. As time continues to move forward, people find comfort in reminiscing the memories of the traditional cinema that was once a landmark in the city. 

Interestingly enough, the decaying and the abandonment of traditional cinemas is a common issue shared by other countries around the world. A similar example of this can also be seen in the documentary Cinema, Mon Amour directed by Alexandru Belc in 2015. Set in Romania Cinema, Mon Amour, the film shares a common ground with Bafatá Filme Clube on the preservation of place and memory, and it serves as an invitation for the audience to reflect on how one can keep a memory alive.  

The next screening of CineMar will be on the 11th of December. 

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