Thursday, October 23rd
7:30PM
Examen D'État (National Diploma)
Dir. Dieudo Hamadi
DR Congo/France
2014, 90 min.
In Kisangani, a group of Congolese high school students takes matters into their own hands after their teachers demand fees to help them study for their national diploma. Together, they rent a house and prepare on their own for a moment that will define their future. With a style that is casual but precise, director Dieudo Hamadi never misses a moment in his heartrending portrait of determination, success, and disappointment.
Filmmaker:
Dieudo Hamadi was born in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, and studied medicine from 2005 to 2008. He subsequently took a number of workshops in documentary filmmaking and editing. He has shot two medium-length documentary films, DAMES EN ATTENTE (Ladies in Waiting) and TOLÉRANCE ZÉRO (Zero Tolerance), which were selected for a number of festivals in Europe (Paris, Amsterdam) and Canada (Toronto). DAMES EN ATTENTE was awarded the Pierre & Yolande Perrault grant at the Cinéma du Réel Festival (Paris) in 2009. In 2013, with ATALAKU, his first feature-length documentary that relates the 2011 election campaign in Congo, he won the Joris Ivens Prize, awarded by Marceline Loridan (Cinéma du Réel), the award for best foreign film at the San Diego Black Film Festival (USA), the jury prize at the Fipadoc Festival (Agadir, Morocco) and four other awards. In 2014, EXAMEN D'ETAT received the SCAM International Prize and the Potemkine Prize at the Cinéma du Réel Festival.