The Joburg Film Festival in South Africa defied a decision by the country’s Film and Publications Board (FPB) to block the screening of Black Girl, a celebrated film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, this week.
The festival screened the 1966 classic in protest on Thursday, and the FPB reversed its decision on Friday.
Variety reported:
In a decision that shocked festival organizers and many of the African filmmakers in attendance, a FPB reviewer recommended the film be submitted for “full classification” — a process that would determine its suitability for public viewing — “due to prejudicial element that contains acts of hate speech which is degrading of a human being.”
Within hours of this story’s publication on Friday morning in Johannesburg, Variety received word that the FPB had reversed course and granted the festival permission to screen the film. The board has not yet responded to repeated requests for additional comment.
…
Based on a short story written by Sembène, “Black Girl” follows a young Senegalese woman who moves to France in search of a better life. After taking a job as governess for a wealthy white family, she finds her hopes thwarted by a barrage of racist and humiliating incidents that finally drive her to commit suicide.
South Africa’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression, except for hate speech, defined as “advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.