Screening: Mami Wata (2023) performance & interview

Click here for Mami Wata (2023) tickets!

On November 2 at 16:20, Studio/K is hosting a programme surrounding the movie Mami Wata (2023), featuring a performance by and interview with professor in Black history and ethnomusicology Olupemi Oludare. A second screening (without extra programme) will be held on November 20. The screening will be followed by a performance by and interview with Olupemi Oludare, in which we’ll contextualize practices, significance, and cultural popularity of Mami Wata philosophy and (oral) history in both West Africa and the African diaspora.

Mami Wata is a gorgeous black-and-white rendition of the West-African folklore of Mami Wata, covering themest explores themes of power, tradition v.s. modernity, fate and pride. In a matriarchal seaside community, locals worship the Mermaid-deity Mami Wata and look to guidance from their healer Mama Efe. When Mami Wata is unable to save a young boy from a virus and children begin to die and disappear, tensions erupt, leaving it up to Mama Efe and her daughters to restore balance in the village.
Mami Wata premiered at Sundance in 2023, and won the award for best Cinematography. With its otherworldy, trance-like atmosphere, it bears resemblance to the work of David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jim Jarmusch, though with its own unique qualities. It’s Nigerian director C.J. ‘fiery’ Obasi’s third full-feature film. Studio/K previously screened his short Hello, Rain (2018), as part of our Afrofuturism programming (spring 2024).

Olupemi Oludare
Olupemi Oludare is an Assistant Professor of Black History, whose work focuses on modern history of Africa and the diaspora with the aim of exploring arts and culture as oral, embodied and material sources of Black history, heritage, and identity. His research interests include decoloniality, transnationalism, and Afrofuturism within the Black communities. With specialization in ethnomusicology, his work further examines the role of music, language, and culture in human and social development. Olupemi is also a performing artist and engages in intercultural practices deeply rooted in African (Ubuntu and Omolúàbí) philosophies and indigenous knowledge.

Film is Engels én Fon gesproken, met Engelse ondertiteling.