Genderdocufilmfest 2010
L'Esprit de Madjid
Togo, 2009
Written, produced, directed and edited by Ines Johnson-Spain
Cinematography by Jochen Heilek, Ines Johnson-Spain, Marco Villalobos
Featuring Bonfoh Mandjirou, Ayana V. Jackson
Length: 55 minutes
Format: Colour, Mini-DV, 1:1.33, Stereo
Language: French with English subtitles
Interview
Images
Ines Johnson-Spain,
director
L'Esprit de Madjid [Madjid's spirit]
Madjid, an African boy, discloses his homosexuality amid collective voodoo ceremonies and his job as a hairdresser. Suspended between the legacy of voodoo tradition and Africa's social changes, Madjid finds his own identity without denying any of them. Both an intimate interview and an ethnological reportage, L'Esprit De Madjid gives the floor to an extraordinary character and offers a unique glimpse on integration.
Interview at the Gender DocuFilm Fest
Giona Nazzaro, artistic director of GDFF, talks to Ines Johnson-Spain, director, editor and producer of L'Esprit de Madjid, during the screening on Thursday August 26.
Giona: Ines, could you tell us something about the genesis of your documentary, and above all when and how did you meet Madjid, the extraordinary main character of your film.
Ines: First of all, thank you again for inviting my film. Unfortunately I have to say that African films are very rarely presented at film festivals, and also in gay film festivals. I would have loved Madjid to come here but unfortunately he couldn't. I met him in 2006 for the first time, I was shooting in Togo, West Africa, with some people for a different project. By coincidence he was friends with some neighbours of us, so we became friends too. I just was attracted with his special personality and we started to talk at length, and quite soon I started to ask him if we could shoot a film. We actually started shooting with him without really knowing what he wanted to do, but he was very curious about filming, and he sort of got the feeling of directing himself the shooting. Quite soon the subject of voodoo came up and he was talking a lot about his relationship with his spirit and how the spirits define his self-understanding. He would have never said that he is a homosexual man, for him homosexuality is a western concept he doesn't really feels home with. He always said that he is a man with a certain femininity, that's how he used to say. For me it was very interesting to hear these explanations, as a result of a ghost he is in contact with.
Giona: Your film is twofold: at first you interview Madjid and then you follow him at the voodoo ceremony, as if you were filming a ethnologic documentary. How would you describe your film?
Ines: For me filmmaking is a process in which you are confronting a subject, or a person, who is entering your life, in this case my life, and it defines how the film will be developing itself. In this case my main focus was always Madjid, and the documentary approached the voodoo theme because of him. He decided this himself, and he invited us to go to the ceremony. I myself would have never set to make a film about voodoo. And it is not at all a film about voodoo, it is a film about a young man in Togo. The film presents just one way of living in Africa, besides the subjects of hunger, war and other topics that are normally in the media. For me it was very interesting to open up a universe in this single person, to tell something about Africa and about the way of living of somebody who is maybe a little outside society and on the other hand well included in the tradition of voodoo.
Documentaries in competition 2010
L'Esprit De Madjid
Togo, 2009
Written, produced, directed and edited by Ines Johnson-Spain
Cinematography by Jochen Heilek, Ines Johnson-Spain, Marco Villalobos
Featuring Bonfoh Mandjirou, Ayana V. Jackson
Length: 55 minutes
Format: Colour, Mini-DV, 1:1.33, Stereo
Language: French with English subtitles
Interview
Images
Ines Johnson-Spain,
director
L'Esprit de Madjid [Madjid's spirit]
Madjid, an African boy, discloses his homosexuality amid collective voodoo ceremonies and his job as a hairdresser. Suspended between the legacy of voodoo tradition and Africa's social changes, Madjid finds his own identity without denying any of them. Both an intimate interview and an ethnological reportage, L'Esprit De Madjid gives the floor to an extraordinary character and offers a unique glimpse on integration.
Interview at the Gender DocuFilm Fest
Giona Nazzaro, artistic director of GDFF, talks to Ines Johnson-Spain, director, editor and producer of L'Esprit de Madjid, during the screening on Thursday August 26.
Giona: Ines, could you tell us something about the genesis of your documentary, and above all when and how did you meet Madjid, the extraordinary main character of your film.
Ines: First of all, thank you again for inviting my film. Unfortunately I have to say that African films are very rarely presented at film festivals, and also in gay film festivals. I would have loved Madjid to come here but unfortunately he couldn't. I met him in 2006 for the first time, I was shooting in Togo, West Africa, with some people for a different project. By coincidence he was friends with some neighbours of us, so we became friends too. I just was attracted with his special personality and we started to talk at length, and quite soon I started to ask him if we could shoot a film. We actually started shooting with him without really knowing what he wanted to do, but he was very curious about filming, and he sort of got the feeling of directing himself the shooting. Quite soon the subject of voodoo came up and he was talking a lot about his relationship with his spirit and how the spirits define his self-understanding. He would have never said that he is a homosexual man, for him homosexuality is a western concept he doesn't really feels home with. He always said that he is a man with a certain femininity, that's how he used to say. For me it was very interesting to hear these explanations, as a result of a ghost he is in contact with.
Giona: Your film is twofold: at first you interview Madjid and then you follow him at the voodoo ceremony, as if you were filming a ethnologic documentary. How would you describe your film?
Ines: For me filmmaking is a process in which you are confronting a subject, or a person, who is entering your life, in this case my life, and it defines how the film will be developing itself. In this case my main focus was always Madjid, and the documentary approached the voodoo theme because of him. He decided this himself, and he invited us to go to the ceremony. I myself would have never set to make a film about voodoo. And it is not at all a film about voodoo, it is a film about a young man in Togo. The film presents just one way of living in Africa, besides the subjects of hunger, war and other topics that are normally in the media. For me it was very interesting to open up a universe in this single person, to tell something about Africa and about the way of living of somebody who is maybe a little outside society and on the other hand well included in the tradition of voodoo.
Documentaries in competition 2010
L'Esprit De Madjid
