Beyond Keïta’s Frame: Shorts Program
Seydou Keïta, the premier studio photographer of 20th-century Africa, recorded Mali’s evolution with his camera. Delve deeper into the country’s and diaspora’s stories with this expansive film series, presented in partnership with African Film Festival and in tandem with Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens. Check out other films in this series.
Featuring short films (listed below), this program explores self-fashioning and adornment across the African diaspora. It will be introduced by Catherine E. McKinley, curator of Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens.
Tickets are $16 and include Museum general admission. Member tickets are free. Not a Member? Join today!
Featured shorts
Keïta La (Mamadou Tapily, Catherine E. McKinley, and Marc Lesser, 2025, 10 min.)
Keïta’s family and other witnesses to his remarkable career share their memories of the photographer and his studio, which he ran from 1948 to 1962. Against the backdrop of Bamako, whose citizens Keïta lovingly immortalized, the film grants rare insight into the artist’s practice and speaks to his photographs’ power as a record of the nation.
Jojolo (Lebert Bethune, 1966, 12 min.)
This film follows a graceful young woman of Haitian descent who works as a model and actor in cosmopolitan Paris. Cool, light, and lyrical, Bethune’s portrait is a subtle study of cultural identity.
Mr. Gele: The Man. The Story. The Craft (Gladys Edeh, 2016, 14 min.)
Mr. Gele offers a glimpse of the celebrated Nigerian gele (headwear) artist Hakeem Oluwasegun Olaleye, popularly known as Segun Gele. Based in Houston, Segun Gele is a self-taught designer and makeup artist who has used his skills to great acclaim. This insightful documentary captures his life as a family man and businessman, shining light on an intriguing figure.
Life on Earth (Abderrahmane Sissako, 1998, 61 min.)
This film is a tender portrayal of life in Mali on the millennium New Year’s Eve. The character played by Sissako, also the film’s star, returns from France to Sokolo, his father’s village, to meditate on the new era and how technology connects the community with the outside world. Featuring poetry by Aimé Césaire, the film juxtaposes European society to daily life in an ancestral village.
