Dedicated to Sarah Maldoror (1929–2020), revolutionary voice and first female filmmaker in African cinema, the tribute scheduled for the 66th edition of the Festival dei Popoli (Florence, 3–9 November 2025). This retrospective is part of a collaboration between the Festival dei Popoli and the Calliope Arts Foundation within the project ‘Women Trailblazers in Documentary Cinema’, aimed at rediscovering and celebrating female directors whose work has been underestimated or forgotten over the years.

The selection aims to celebrate the work of the French director, who is Pan-African by adoption and committed to recounting the wars of liberation of the former Portuguese colonies, with a particular focus on the role of women in the struggle. 

Sarah Maldoror left an indelible mark on the history of cinema with her powerful gaze and unwavering commitment to social justice and the affirmation of African identities. Accompanying the screenings and presenting the director's films in Florence will be her daughter, Annouchka de Andrade, who curates her legacy and oversees the restoration and distribution of her works. 

‘What we will pay tribute to Sarah Maldoror is a fitting and heartfelt homage. Not only because she is one of the most important directors in the History of Cinema, but also because she was a unique artist who, for over half a century, recounted the despotic nature of colonialism, working first-hand for the independence of African countries and making her cinema a tool for knowledge, struggle and liberation. Today more than ever, it is important to show her work and share its underlying motives, to remember that love for art can never be separated from civil and political commitment and that filming always implies taking a stand, especially where human rights are not adequately protected.’ (Alessandro Stellino, artistic director of the Festival dei Popoli)

From Algiers to Paris, via Moscow, Bissau, Conakry, Bogota, Panama and Martinique, Sarah Maldoror has never stopped fighting for justice and freedom. Her cinema, driven by a decolonial, combative and poetic spirit, blends painting and music. Born Ducados to a father from Guadeloupe, she chose the name Maldoror in honour of Lautréamont's poem, taking a stance that reflects her artistic and political commitment. After founding the first theatre company of black actors in France, Les Griots, in 1956, she was assistant director to Pontecorvo on The Battle of Algiers in 1966, and then to William Klein on Festival Panafricain d'Alger (1969). Her first feature film was also the first ever made by an African female director: Sambizanga (1972), based on a novel by Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira, follows the vicissitudes of a young woman whose husband has been imprisoned in Angola by the Portuguese authorities. Following her meeting with Mario de Andrade, Sarah Maldoror opened her work to constant dialogue with intellectuals, artists and politicians from the revolutionary world and, in the following decades, made dozens of films: fiction, documentaries and countless short films for French television, some in the form of notes and portraits. 

There will be 12 works in the tribute, including, in addition to the masterpiece Sambizanga, the restored version of the debut short film Monangambééé (1969), followed by Aimé Césaire, un homme une terre (1976), a portrait of a humanist poet rooted in his native Martinique, who seeks bridges between African and European culture and reflects on the different types of neocolonialism in the contemporary era; Aimé Césaire – Le Masque des mots (1987), in which the mayor, poet and playwright of Fort-de-France questions the future of Martinique and the resurgence of racism in the world; Portrait de Assia Djebar (1989), in which the Algerian writer Djebar discusses the role of women in the Arab and Muslim world, and Léon G. Damas (1994) on the Guyanese poet and founder of Négritude.

This tribute is part of a wider programme of support from Calliope Arts for the Festival dei Popoli, which will present tributes and focus sessions dedicated to female filmmakers overlooked by film history, offering the public the opportunity to appreciate the work of true pioneers who remained in the shadows of their time. The collaboration project also includes the development of thematic itineraries within women's cinema, aimed at further enhancing the process of rediscovery not only of artistic production as a whole but also of movements, personalities and figures that deserve to be brought back to light or have not received the attention they deserve. The aim is to contribute to reformulating a history of cinema which, even in the documentary field, has too often been forgotten and conceived in a one-sided manner.

Founded in 2021 by Margie MacKinnon and Wayne McArdle, the Calliope Arts Foundation provides support for restoration, exhibitions and educational activities, as well as curating and supporting programmes and publications such as ‘The Curators’ Quaderno' and the magazine “Restoration Conversations”.