EVENTS

Manthia Diawara
Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom
Batoto Yetu Portugal, Caxias
15.11.2025, 14h30

E-Flyer (port)

Manthia Diawara, Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom, 2023, film still

Produced by Maumaus / Lumiar Cité, the film reflects on the life and work of the North American activist Angela Davis. Manthia Diawara’s camera follows Davis as she walks through a forest of giant sequoias, works in the garden or walks her dog, while reflecting on myriad issues, including ideas of freedom, resistance, rebellion, remaking our world, political blackness, radical black thought, music, (inter)nationalism, (Global South) feminism, abolition, the industrial prison complex, generational shifts, dialectics, contradiction, Africa, sexuality, desire and also friendship. The film is neither a biography nor a fictional narrative. Instead, Diawara’s footage, which is interspersed with relevant archival material, presents itself as a poetic compendium of Davis’s critical thinking and an inspiration for new imaginaries and new relations within an emergent new world.

Manthia Diawara (Mali) is a distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at New York University. Manthia Diawara is a prolific writer and film-maker. His essays on art, cinema and politics have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart and Artforum. He has published several books on African and African American cinema. Diawara’s notable films include: Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom (2023), AI: African Intelligence (2022), A Letter from Yene (2022), An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2015), Édouard Glissant, One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008) and Rouch in Reverse (1995). His films have been presented at festivals, biennials and a wide range of exhibition venues, including the Berlin International Film Festival, Bienal de São Paulo, Biennale de Dakar, Biennale de Lubumbashi, Centre Pompidou, documenta 14, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Lumiar Cité, Museu de Serralves, HKW-Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Manifesta, MOCA Busan; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Serpentine Galleries and Sharjah Biennial.

Angela Davis: A World of Greater Freedom

A film by Manthia Diawara

Produced by Lumiar Cité / Maumaus

Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation with major funding from the Mellon Foundation, co-commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary with the support of Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation, Lisbon, and Portuguese Ministry of Culture / Directorate-General for the Arts.