Godard in Mozambique

The pursuit of an image of independence

Abstract

This article is an investigation into the work of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and his production company Sonimage in Mozambique in 1978, in a joint project with the Marxist government of the newly independent country. The project consisted of the production of a series called Birth (of the Image) of a Nation, which Godard treated as a report on Mozambicans' relationship with the image in order to provide guidelines for the implementation of a television network in the country. The project was interesting for both: for FRELIMO, which was investing in cinema as a way of building identity; and for Godard, who in recent years had been dedicating himself to the investigation of mass communication, and saw an opportunity to create television in a territory not yet dominated by the Western audiovisual industry. Despite this convergence, the project did not prosper, but it still has many historical, aesthetic and political connections: a European filmmaker in Africa, in the political effervescence of post-independence, at the invitation of a left-wing government, willing to experiment in the field of image and representation. Here we will consider the impasses faced in this experience and the possible contradictions of the idealized project, at the crossroads between the European filmmaker's artistic career and the cultural policy of the African country in the process of decolonization.