Sarah Maldoror in focus with an exhibition and retrospective in Italy

The Recovery Plan, a cultural association in Italy, is the organizer of an exhibition dedicated to Sarah Maldoror, titled Sarah Maldoror: C’est pour vous que je parlerai. The show draws upon research into the visionary French-African filmmaker, her filmography, and her friendship with the Martinican poet and politician Aimé Césaire. A larger retrospective which presents Maldoror's films within the broader context of feminist cinema is running in parallel at the 66th Festival dei Popoli in Florence.

The exhibition at The Recovery Plan was conceived as a research-based project organized by Justin Randoph Thompson and Janine Gaëlle Dieudji in collaboration with the artist's daughter, Annouchka de Andrade. Drawing on Maldoror's personal archives, the project takes a dive into her deep personal engagement with the political and cultural legacy of the First Congress of Black Artists and Writers (1956), the legacy of Négritude, and her enduring commitment to the construction of revolutionary narratives.

The film retrospective, which pays tribute to Maldoror's revolutionary cinema, is ongoing at Festival dei Popoli. Representing a joint collaboration between Festival dei Popoli and Calliope Arts Foundation as part of a larger project titled Woman Trailblazers in Documentary Cinema, a selection of 12 works by Maldoror are being screened at the festival, in which she documents the wars of liberation of the Portuguese African colonies. Among the works being screened at the festival are her 1972 masterpiece Sambizanga, a restored version of her debut short film Monangambééé (1969), Aimé Césaire, un homme une terre (1976) and Portrait de Assia Djebar (1989) in which the Algerian poet discusses the role of women in the Arab and Muslim world.

Justin Randolph Thompson, an Italian-based artist, cultural facilitator and educator, curated the exhibition together with Dieudji and de Andrade. Thompson is co-founder of Black History Month Florence, a cultural event established in 2016 with the aim of exploring African and African Diasporic cultures within the Italian context. Thompson's life and work are an outgrowth of his artistic interest in the phenomena of socio-cultural stratification and in deconstructing the notion of permanence by setting up temporary communities as monuments. He has realized, coordinated, facilitated, curated and promoted over 400 events and is involved in nine ongoing research projects through Black History Month Florence.

Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020) was born Sarah Ducados, of Guadeloupean and French extraction. She moved to Paris in the 1950s, where she studied drama and was among a group of Black students instrumental in establishing Les Griots, a theater company devoted to performing modern plays with African themes. While living with her husband, the Angolan poet Mário de Andrade, in Guinea in the 1960s, she received a scholarship from the country's government to study film in Moscow. Upon finishing her studies there she moved to Algeria, where she was employed as an assistant in the production of Gillo Pontecorvo's legendary film The Battle of Algiers (1964). Her involvement with this and several other projects in Algeria inspired her to produce Monangambééé and Sambizanga. Maldoror's cinematic output focused a spotlight on the role that Black women played in African independence movements and charted the creative connections that existed among the most important artists and intellectuals who emerged in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora.

Sarah Maldoror: C’est pour vous que je parlerai is open through January 6, 2026. The retrospective at Festival dei Popoli is on from November 3-9, 2026. The Association of Friends of Sarah Maldoror and Mário de Andrade maintain a website that posts announcements about events related to both of its namesakes. For more information about these two events check The Recovery Plan website and the website for Festival dei Popoli.