Film Screening : Bahia la Sainte

The preservation and showcasing of film archives have become a key issue in critically understanding visual representations of the 20th century. For the very first time, in partnership with Archives nationales de France, this screening presents a rare projection of Bahia la Sainte, directed by Roger Moride in 1951 and newly digitized especially for the AKAA fair.

A former student at IDHEC and assistant to Jacques Tati, Moride spent more than two years in South America, including fourteen months in Salvador de Bahia.From this stay he brought back thousands of meters of film reels, from which he created a trilogy exploring religious practices, popular festivities, and daily life of the city. Bahia la Sainte is the culmination of this work, particularly for its rare footage of Candomblé ceremonies, captured discreetly and with remarkable sensitivity.

While this film provides an exceptional visual record, it must also be viewed through the critical lens of colonial history and the social sciences. It reflects a European gaze on Afro-Brazilian cultural practices—framed by commentary written later by screenwriter Simon Gantillon, whose words echo the exoticism and colonial imagination that shaped many documentary productions of that era.

The screening will be introduced by Martine Sin Blima-Barru, PhD in History, Heritage Curator, and Head of the Audiovisual Archives Mission at the National Archives, alongside Sandrine Gill, PhD in Art History and Senior Archivist specializing in heritage collections within the same institution.

Following the screening, Sandrine Gill will provide scholarly insight into this body of films—produced either by French researchers or under institutional commissions—examining the tension between documentary ambition and colonial frameworks, before opening the discussion to audience questions.

In english.