Black Africa White Marble

An amazing feat of nonfiction storytelling, filmmaker Clemente Bicocchi's documentary about African social dysfunction and corruption incorporates marionettes, animation, and a village griot to help tell related century-apart narratives of Third World imperialism. In the late 19th and early 20th century, European explorer Pietro Savorgnan de Brazza earned a reputation as a respectful and honorable white man among tribal leaders in the Belgian Congo. While investigating charges of economic exploitation and slavery among colonial companies, Brazza suddenly took ill and died, after which his widow claimed he was murdered. Around a hundred years later, the government of the poverty-wracked Congo seeks to relocate the remains of the still-venerated Brazza to a huge white-marble shrine in the capital city of Brazzaville. But the hero's Italian descendants detect a scheme—backed by oil multinationals and the dictatorship—to trade on Brazza's good name for deceitful secret agendas. Based on the published writings of principal interviewee Idanna Pucci, this eye-opening documentary is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)