Celebrating Cinema

Who gets to tell a story? And who gets to see themselves reflected on screen?
Sixty years after its release, Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl (La Noire de..., 1966) remains one of the defining works of African cinema. Restored in 4K and re-released by Odyssey Classics for its anniversary, Sembène's groundbreaking debut follows Diouana, a young Senegalese woman who travels to France believing she's beginning a new life, only to find herself trapped within the lingering structures of colonial power.
Filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus is joined by filmmaker and archivist Djeneba Saccoh to discuss why Black Girl still feels so vital today. Together they unpack the quiet resistance woven through the film—from Diouana's inner monologue to the carved mask that passes between worlds.
From there, Kiriko and Djeneba trace the film's influence through Mati Diop's Dahomey to Souleymane Cissé's Den Muso, exploring how filmmakers across generations have continued to grapple with questions of representation, power and who gets to tell their own story.
New to Ousmane Sembène? We recommend listening to our companion interview with his son, Alain Sembène, in which producer Elliot Bloom explores the life, philosophy and legacy of the filmmaker often described as the father of African cinema.
Get tickets to Black Girl @ LAB111
Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men⁠ @ LAB111

Some filmmakers don't just make great films, they change who cinema is for.
60 years ago, Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl (La Noire de...) announced a new cinematic voice to the world. Through the story of a young Senegalese woman working for a French family, Sembène exposed the brutal realities of colonialism while proving that African stories could—and should—be told on their own terms.
To mark the film's 60th anniversary, producer Elliot Bloom speaks with Alain Sembène, the filmmaker's son, about the remarkable life and philosophy behind one of cinema's true pioneers.
Together, they discuss why Sembène turned from literature to filmmaking, why he believed cinema could become "the people's night school," and how he dedicated his career to challenging audiences to question the systems that shape their lives.
Get tickets to Black Girl @ LAB111
Get tickets to ⁠Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men⁠ @ LAB111

A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.

Why are journeys one of cinema's defining storytelling forms?
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey brings one of literature's greatest journeys to the screen. Laura Gommans and Tom Ooms discuss whether the film succeeds as an epic, why Nolan's obsession with IMAX shapes the experience as much as the storytelling, and whether a cast this famous ever lets the world of the film feel fully inhabited.
They also introduce LAB111's new season of quests, exiles and homecomings, from Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Beau Is Afraid to The Seventh Seal, asking what these films reveal about why cinema returns to stories of people searching for a place to belong.

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Get tickets to It's Not The Destination, It's The Journey @ LAB111
Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men @ LAB111

A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.

Do ratings help us discover great films or have they quietly changed the way we watch?
Before you've even bought a ticket, you probably know the Letterboxd average, the IMDb score or the Rotten Tomatoes percentage. Somewhere between the opening scene and the closing credits, many of us are already deciding on a number of our own.
Laura Gommans is joined by producer Elliot Bloom to discuss what ratings have done to film culture. From an IMDb Top 250 that barely changes to Rotten Tomatoes' aggregate scores, they explore how audience opinion shapes everything from blockbuster filmmaking to the rise of safe, audience-tested stars, and why the best films rarely fit neatly into a number.

Get tickets to ⁠Girly Pop! But I'm A Cheerleader⁠ @ LAB111
Get tickets to ⁠Schmutz Cinema: Close-Up On Late⁠x @ LAB111

A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.

The Watermelon Woman (1996) was Cheryl Dunye's debut and the first American feature directed by a Black lesbian. A film that slips between video-store romance and a forged archive, asking who gets recorded by cinema and who gets written out of it. Thirty years on, it has been restored, added to the Criterion Collection, and, for the very first time, released in Dutch cinemas.
Filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus is joined by Justine Knijn, distributor at Eye Filmmuseum and the person bringing the film to the Netherlands. They get into the film's faked documentary structure and its late reveal; the 1996 sex scene that drew conservative backlash over its tiny public budget; and the satire of academia.
A conversation about lesbian film history, restoration, and the long afterlife of films the industry tried to forget and a case for a mainstream gay summer.
Get tickets to ⁠⁠The Watermelon Woman @ LAB111
Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men @ LAB111
Get tickets to ⁠⁠Fight The Power: Palestine 36 @ LAB111
Get tickets to Girly Pop! But I'm A Cheerleader @ LAB111
Get tickets to Schmutz Cinema: Close-Up On Latex @ LAB111

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A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.