Monangambé

Coming from the theater, Sarah Maldoror became a filmmaker-griot during a time when the war in Vietnam dominated public consciousness. Using the camera, she brought attention to the African wars of decolonization, including those in Angola, Guinea Bissau, French Guinea, and Cape Verde. Her short film *Monangambée* depicts the torture of an Angolan resistance sympathizer by the Portuguese army. After completing the edit, Maldoror approached members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago during a concert in Paris and invited them to contribute sound to her film. The next day, they viewed the film, were convinced, and recorded its first soundtrack for free as an act of African-American solidarity. Filmed in Algiers, *Monangambée* is a film about torture and, more broadly, about the lack of understanding between the colonized and the colonizers. It is based on a novel by the Angolan writer Luandino Vieira, who was at the time imprisoned by the Portuguese colonial authorities.