“Omar is dead!”, a voice cried out in Dakar, on the 11th of May in 1973. A young militant philosopher, and the articulate Maoist in Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (1967) had allegedly committed suicide in his Gorée Island prison cell. His family and friends did not believe a word of it, demanding that light be shed on this political crime.  Just a Movement is a free reprise of La Chinoise, that reallocates its characters fifty years later in Dakar, and updates its plot, offering a m editation on the relationship between politics, justice, and memory. Omar Blondin Diop, becomes the key character. Through this cinematographic gesture that oscillates and circulates between documentary and filmed essay, Vincent Meessen questions the Senegal of yesterday and today, and the not-so-subtle neo-imperialism of a China that uses the soft powers of education and culture to penetrate the present and future of Senegal.

In his feature-length debut, Ephraim Asili drew inspiration from his own life experience as a member of the radical Black group MOVE to direct an impressive ensemble piece almost entirely set in a house in West Philadelphia. Described alternately as a “speculative re-enactment”, or as an experimental hybrid genre, that blends scripted drama with archive news footage, voice-overs, and interviews, The Inheritance could not be a timelier work to reflect with intelligence and heart on building radical grass-roots political movements. MOVE was the victim of a notorious and tragic police bombing in 1985.