In Paris 1969, jazz legend Thelonious Monk records a spot for French television. Between takes, he is bombarded with questions. Cut together entirely from recently unearthed outtakes, Alain Gomis’s Rewind & Play provides a view from the other side, showing how Monk experienced racism during the event. The stark yet pointed edit by the French Senegalese director (Félicité) indicts not just the interviewer but more broadly the white institutions still upheld by pervasive racism today. 2022, France/Germany, DCP, 65 min.
The January 20 screening will be introduced by guest speaker Davu Seru, an improvising musician, composer, and assistant professor of practice in the department of English at Hamline University.
BIOS
Alain Gomis (France, b. 1972) is a French Senegalese film director and screenwriter. Gomis has often turned his attentions to the topics of identity and narrative deconstruction. His first feature film L’Afrance (2002) won the Silver Leopard at Locarno. His film Félicité (2017) won the Grand Jury Prix at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival. Gomis regularly gives production and writing workshops. In 2018 he and Aïssatou Diop founded the Yennenga Center in Dakar, Senegal, to promote independent film production in Senegal and Africa.
Davu Seru (b. David Allen Underwood) is an improvising musician and composer. Seru has worked with numerous improvising musicians and composers throughout the United States and France, including Anthony Cox, Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, J. Otis Powell ‽, Didier Petit, Mankwe Ndosi, Jack Wright, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Rafael Toral, Donald Washington, Catherine Delaunay, Louis Alemayehu, Ta-coumba Aiken, Tony Hymas, and Nicole Mitchell. In 2017–2018 he served as composer-in-residence at Studio Z in St. Paul. He’s curated concert series for over the past 20 years and has received awards from McKnight Foundation (2020 Composer Fellowship), Jerome Foundation (2017–2018 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow), American Composers Forum (Minnesota Emerging Composer Award), the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Next Step Fund), and has received commissions from the Zeitgeist Ensemble and Walker Art Center. A published author, Seru is assistant professor of practice in the department of English at Hamline University.
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