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Mambar Pierrette

February 28, 2024

Mambar Pierrette

(Dir. Rosine Mbakam, 2023)

Los Angeles premiere!

DOORS 

7:00pm

SCREENING

7:30pm

LOCATION

Laemmle Glendale
207 N Maryland Ave
Glendale, CA 91206

Yanai Initiative logo_edited.jpg
Yanai Initiative logo_edited.jpg

Following the limited U.S. release of two of her documentaries—The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman, a portrait of her mother and repression by the French, and Chez jolie coiffure (both 2018), which explores the African diaspora via a hair salon in Belgium—Mbakam’s dramatic debut offers insight into the daily lives of women in contemporary Cameroon, enlisting her cousin, Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat, to play the titular character.


A succession of customers come to Mambar Pierrette, the neighborhood seamstress and reliable confidant, who has her own strife to deal with as a single mother barely making ends meet. As she readies clothes for upcoming social events and the commencement of the school year, heavy rain threatens to flood her workshop—one of many misfortunes in which she will have to find ways to stay afloat. Mbakam's instincts as a documentarian are put to good use in this unique character study that foregrounds common struggles and bonds among women in Africa, too often overlooked in mainstream cinema. Official selection: Cannes, TIFF, NYFF.


TRT: 93 min


“An original filmmaker of exquisite sensibility; one of the foremost filmmakers of creative nonfiction working right now.”  —Richard Brody, The New Yorker


"Mbakam has brought the patience of a documentarian to a character study that lets the details create an accumulative affect." —Tara Judah, Screen Daily


"As in Mbakam’s bravura nonfiction, the simplicity and directness of Mambar Pierrette belie a penetrating emotional and political vision.” —Devika Girish, Film Comment


"Critic's Pick! Mbakam hits a remarkable balance. The sociopolitical truths that make up Pierrette’s losing streak are evident, without the miserable patronizing so common in films about struggle in Africa." —Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times


“With extreme simplicity, and using the utmost discretion in her direction, Rosine Mbakam disappears behind the outlines of her character, who is crafted with fine strokes in a register that combines description with sharp social critique.” —Mathieu Macheret, Le Monde


(Available to download after screening date)

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