Photographer Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine's car broke down in Mbirizi, Uganda. While waiting for the repairs he stumbled upon the photo studio of photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo who had been taking pictures for 50 years. KIbaate's work was stunning and the effort to preserve and share it became Mwine's life work after that.
I love this film. It is so magnificently unexpected that it knocked me off my feet.
The first third of the film is about the discovery and Mwine's setting up an exhibition of the photos and the reception. If the film ended there it would have been a glorious celebration of one man and his work. The thing is that there is still an hour to go and from that point things get thorny as complications arise. It seems that Kibaate had six wives and 47 children with 12 different women and not everyone was consulted and there was a lot of bad blood. How it plays out is enlightening and makes the whole film so much deeper than had it been just a victory lap.
This is just a hell of a story about our lives, families, our pasts and our futures.
What a great discovery that will make you wonder why this isn't in the Oscar mix.
Highly recommended,
No comments:
Post a Comment