Vibrancy of Silence

In this documentary, Marthe Djilo Kamga takes us along as she engages in fruitful conversations with four other Cameroonian female artists who, like her, know exile as well as how necessary it is to transmit to younger generations what they have learned as their multiple identities have evolved and fused. The original score that accompanies the voices of these three generations of women is an active part of the adventure, a witness for the future.

The conversations are connected by key themes of cultural heritage, historical memory and how images shape personal and collective memories.

A Discussion with My Sisters is the first instalment of Frieda Ekotto’s visual research project Vibrancy of Silence : Archiving the Images and Cultural Production of Sub-Saharan African Women on African women as the unsung heroines of artistic and cultural production. Indeed, their immense cultural and creative contributions remain underrepresented and inexplicably invisible. She is resolved to affirm and archive her own story and thus participate in a rereading of the “Colonial Library” with new kinds of narratives by and for women.

Marthe Djilo Kamga is founder and current coordinator of the Massimadi festival, and her professional and personal paths have revolved around her interest in questions of vulnerability, identity, and equal opportunity. Her interest in art and cultural production (film, performance, photography, etc.) empowers her to reappropriate images and public spaces for people in positions of invisibility.

Reoccurring themes in her work are the coexistence of multiple identities and diverse modes of artistic and cultural expression. She does a little of everything and is constantly asking herself if one lifetime will be enough to satisfy all her interests. She calls herself neither a militant nor a researcher (in connection with her work : “When Women Love other Women : A Consideration of Female Homosexuality in Cameroon”). Having benefited from academic training in the sciences, she defines herself as “a thwarted artist in self-analysis”… In other words, therapeutic artistic and cultural expression!