A special screening of the 2007 documentary film, Memoria Negra, directed by Xavier Montanyà, will be hosted by New York University’s Catalan Center on Tuesday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m., as part of the Center’s series, “Traveling Shots: Catalan Directors See the World.” The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place at NYU’s King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, 53 Washington Square North. For further information, call 212.998.8255.
Memoria Negra examines the legacy of colonization in Equatorial Guinea through interviews, archival footage, and a strong narrative voice and structure. The film moves from the Spanish colonization through independence in 1969 and the bloody dictatorship of Francisco Macias. Interviews from witnesses from both Guinea, such as writer Donato Ndongo, and from Spain, such as Galician politician Manuel Fraga Iribarne and political thinker and activist Antonio Garcia-Trevijano, are featured.
The screening will be followed by a dialogue with director Montanyà; Hofstra University professor Benita Sampedro, a specialist in Equatorial Guinea; and Dr. Adolfo Obiang Bikó, one of the authors and signers of the first democratic constitution of Equatorial Guinea.