Sometimes It Was Beautiful

The African Film Institute is pleased to present a program convened by Natacha Nsabimana on Thursday, October 15 at 6pm at the Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago. The program features two short films, Sometimes It Was Beautiful (2018) by Christian Nyampeta and Fragments for Venus (2025) by Alice Diop, and is presented in conjunction with Karimah Ashadu's exhibition at the Renaissance Society. The screening will be followed by a conversation between Nyampeta and Nsabimana.

Program

Christian Nyampeta, Sometimes It Was Beautiful (2018, 37 minutes)
Inspired by Senegalese writer and film director Ousmane Sembène’s idea of cinema as a communal learning environment, Nyampeta’s 2018 film Sometimes It Was Beautiful, features a group of unlikely friends who gather to watch and critique films made by Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist in the Congo between 1948 and 1952. Their discussion highlights enduring tensions surrounding social transformation, cultural property, and who has the right to representation.

Alice Diop, Fragments for Venus (2025, 21 minutes)
A black woman wanders through a museum, carefully examining each painting, searching for something. In the background, a voiceover recites titles and describes paintings, gradually revealing the place that Western art has often reserved for black female bodies. Another black woman wanders through the streets of Brooklyn, looking in wonder at the black women around her, living incarnations of the new Venus.

For inquiries addressed to the African Film Institute, please write to africanfilminstitute@e-flux.com.

For general and press inquiries, contact program@e-flux.com.