Sarah was the first woman of colour
to direct a feature film in Africa
Sarah became known as the
Matriarch of African Cinema
Mario de Andrade, as a poet, critic,
and political activist
expressed the struggle for
independence of the people of
Angola from colonial rule

Friends of Sarah Maldoror and Mario de Andrade

Annouchka de Andrade and Henda Ducados have developed a project to preserve and share Sarah Maldoror and Mario de Andrade’ work. The path of two beings who fought for African independence and cultural emancipation.  Crucial to their work are films restoration of films, archiving of documents, correspondences, manuscripts and unknown screenplays etc

The aim of this association is to promote the cinematographic works and thought of Sarah Maldoror and Mario de Andrade.

To perpetuate the works of these two intellectuals, to safeguard, promote, disseminate and encourage research into their memory and thoughts.

The Association avails itself of all means and resources (public or private) to restore and promote the works of Sarah Maldoror and Mario de Andrade, whether filmed or not, published or not, and to manage, catalog, archive and promote the public and private audiovisual, sound and written archives in the form of all documents and media.

It takes part in any cultural activity (free or paying) of its choice, in the organization of meetings, symposia, retrospectives, festivals, events (public or private) enabling their works to be transmitted and promoted internationally.

The voice of the oppressed and of the dissidents, the filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, a pioneer of PanAfrican cinema, passed on April 13, 2020, of complications from coronavirus. Her luminous cinematic oeuvre, including more than 40 films, reveals a valiant fighter, curious about everything, generous, sassy, very caring about others, who crossed all sorts of boundaries with her poetic approach.
sarah maldoror
None of Mario de Andrade’s writings have yet been officially translated into English. One may read about his work in both the political and literary spheres in the short biographical entry in Donald E. Herdeck’s (ed.) African Authors, published by Black Orpheus press in 1973. The Portuguese version of “Song of Sabalu” translated into English here is published in Presence Africaine (1966).
mario
Latest News
CICLE Sarah Maldoror Filmoteca de Barcelona 23/05/2025 – 15/06/2025

CICLE Sarah Maldoror Filmoteca de Barcelona 23/05/2025 – 15/06/2025

Filmoteca  D’ascendència antillana, Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020), malgrat haver nascut a França, és recordada com “la mare del cinema africà” per ser la primera dona a rodar al continent negre i

FILM COMMENT – I Write Your Name  By Devika Girish May 9,  2025

FILM COMMENT – I Write Your Name By Devika Girish May 9, 2025

Film at Lincoln Center I Write Your Name By Devika Girish Sarah Maldoror refused to settle. In 1970, when the Guadeloupean-French filmmaker was living in Algeria with her partner, Angolan

The UCLA Film & Television Archive and Los Angeles Filmforum present – Sarah Maldoror: Through a Lens of Resistance and Rebellion

The UCLA Film & Television Archive and Los Angeles Filmforum present – Sarah Maldoror: Through a Lens of Resistance and Rebellion

  Saturday May 10, 2025, 7:30pm At the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum More info at: https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/sarah-maldoror-through-a-lens-of-resistance-and-rebellion-2025-05-10 Free In-person:  Q&A with producer and distributor Annouchka de Andrade, daughter of Maldoror,

Events Diary

Screens: A Panafrica Film Series (Chicago)

August 10, 2024 8:00 am

Screens: A Panafrica Film Series (Chicago)

For modern and contemporary artists working between Africa and the diaspora, film and photography have been tremendously important forms of...

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Origins of African Nationalism

August 23, 2024 8:00 am

Origins of African Nationalism

Continuity and Rupture in the Movements of Unity Emerging from the Struggle against Portuguese Colonial Domination, 1911–1961 Exploring the...

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Revolution will be a poetic act

August 25, 2024 8:00 am

Revolution will be a poetic act

This book is a collection of essays and speeches by Mário Pinto de Andrade, the Angolan literary critic, cultural theorist and political activist...

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Sarah Maldoror – An Alternative Identity – Cataluña cinematek (Barcelona)

October 1, 2024 8:00 am

Sarah Maldoror – An Alternative Identity – Cataluña cinematek (Barcelona)

The season of films Sarah Maldoror. An Alternative Identity responds to the need to network with the city’s institutions to develop a de-localised...

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Past Events
First PanAfrican Cultural Festival  – Screen Slate Podcast
First PanAfrican Cultural Festival – Screen Slate Podcast

After working as an assistant director on The Battle of Algiers (1966), Sarah Maldoror remained in the country to film First PanAfrican Cultural Festival (1969) with William Klein, Mohamed Bouramari, and Rabah Laradji. The polyrhythmic

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A Life of Poetry and Struggles Sarah Maldoror –  Universidade Católica Portuguesa  ( Porto )
A Life of Poetry and Struggles Sarah Maldoror – Universidade Católica Portuguesa ( Porto )

A Life of Poetry and Struggles _ Escola das Artes   Sarah Maldoror foi uma cineasta cujo trabalho permanece ligado à luta pela independência em várias nações africanas nas décadas

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Centre Pompidou  Sarah Maldoror Rétrospective en écho à l’exposition  « Paris noir » 3 – 7 Avril 2025 ( Paris)
Centre Pompidou Sarah Maldoror Rétrospective en écho à l’exposition « Paris noir » 3 – 7 Avril 2025 ( Paris)

La vie comme la carrière de la cinéaste Sarah Maldoror, née Marguerite Sarah Ducados en 1929, épouse tous les engagements du 20e siècle : le surréalisme, la négritude, le panafricanisme, le

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Article Archive
FILM COMMENT – I Write Your Name  By Devika Girish May 9,  2025
FILM COMMENT – I Write Your Name By Devika Girish May 9, 2025

Film at Lincoln Center I Write Your Name By Devika Girish Sarah Maldoror refused to settle. In 1970, when the Guadeloupean-French filmmaker was living in Algeria with her partner, Angolan

Read more
First PanAfrican Cultural Festival  – Screen Slate Podcast
First PanAfrican Cultural Festival – Screen Slate Podcast

After working as an assistant director on The Battle of Algiers (1966), Sarah Maldoror remained in the country to film First PanAfrican Cultural Festival (1969) with William Klein, Mohamed Bouramari, and Rabah Laradji. The polyrhythmic

Read more
Centre Pompidou Magazine Sarah Maldoror: Cinema as a Form of Combat
Centre Pompidou Magazine Sarah Maldoror: Cinema as a Form of Combat

Sarah Maldoror_ Cinema as a Form of Combat – Magazine – Centre Pompidou A committed filmmaker deeply involved in anti-colonial movements, Sarah Maldoror (1929–2020) is the subject of a retrospective

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To Sarah Maldoror…who, camera in hand, fights oppression, alienation
and defies human bullshit

Lisa SmithNY
The New Inquiry

Though her name remains unfamiliar to most, the French­born filmmaker's work is central to postcolonial African cinema

Sight & Sound

Maldoror brought to the screen the "shadow songs" of negritude and the liberation struggles of African countries.

John McGillTX
Cahiers Du Cinema