In 2021, Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation partnered with Cineteca di Bologna to launch a new 4K restoration of Sambizanga, the second feature film directed by the filmmaker and political activist Sarah Maldoror, at Il Cinema Ritrovato.
Since then, prints of Sambizanga and Maldoror’s many later works have been some of the most in-demand properties on the repertory scene, with retrospectives at various institutions from MoMA to Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. And next up on the trail is London, where, next week, the British Film Institute will launch its own large-scale survey of Maldoror’s sprawling career.
Titled A Poet With A Camera: The Cinema of Sarah Maldoror, the BFI’s season will screen more than 40 films made with the involvement of Maldoror throughout her decades-long career. The series launches on September 2 with the Scorsese-backed Sambizanga restoration.
Read the interview with Maldoror’s daughter Annouchka de Andrade