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The Middle Passage (film)

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Wikipedia article




'The Middle Passage' is a 2000 docudrama film directed by Guy Deslauriers about the trans-Atlantic voyage of black slaves from the West Coast of Africa to the Caribbean, a part of the triangular slave trade route called the Middle Passage. It portrays the transportation of slaves from Senegal to the sugar plantations of Martinique and the miserable and often fatal conditions on board the slave ship. The script is by Patrick Chamoiseau based on a scenario by Claude Chonville.[http://www.afrik.com/article2266.html "Le Passage du milieu: entre hommage et justice"], Afrik.com, 23 February 2001 Philippe Azoury, [http://www.liberation.fr/culture/2001/02/14/contre-le-black-out_354548 "Contre le black-out"], 'La Libration', 14 February 2001 It was a Martinique-Senegal-France co-production and was screened at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.Peter Howell, [https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/doc/438170848.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug%202,%202000&author=Peter%20Howell&pub=Toronto%20Star&edition=&startpage=&desc=Film%20festival%20returns%20to%20African%20roots "Film festival returns to African roots"], 'Toronto Star', August 20, 2000.

The film has no dialogue, only a voice-over, spoken by Maka Kotto. Visually, it presents disconnected, slow-motion views of the slaves to evoke both their suffering and the resistance it produced, the source of the blues and of West Indian identity.[http://www.rfi.fr/com/20120130-mahogany-march-carte-blanche-leonora-miano-musee-dapper "Mahogany March - Carte blanche Leonora Miano au muse Dapper"] , RFI, 30 January 2012, revised 20 February 2012 When it was generally released in February 2001, the reviewer for 'La Libration' said that it successfully occupied a territory "somewhere between the fiction of phantoms and the documentary of fantasies".Azoury: "Passage du milieu se situe donc quelque part entre la fiction fantomatique et le documentaire fantasmatique. Ce qui lui va plutt bien." The reviewer for 'Le Monde' judged it "a brave but ultimately unsuccessful attempt" to fill the "[cinematic] void" on this subject.Thomas Sotinel, [http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=689038&xtmc=passage_du_milieu_guy_deslauriers&xtcr=3 "Ressusciter les images de la traite ngrire"], 'Le Monde', 14 February 2001 : "Une tentative courageuse mais inaboutie ... de combler ce vide".

See also



*List of films featuring slavery

References




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