A Single Word
Short Films and Mid-Lengths
•
1h 2m
Leaving December 15
Directed by Khady Sylla and Mariama Sylla | 63 mins | 2014
Begun by Sylla and completed by her sister, Mariama, after Khady’s death in 2013, "A Single Word" connects the essay film to the oral historical tradition of the griots—West African storytellers, musicians, and poets who act as repositories of family genealogies and events past and present in their communities. The Sylla sisters’ grandmother, Penda Diogo Sarr, bearing prodigious memory and a deep well of folk wisdom accumulated through the years, is at the center of "A Single Word," but it is as much a lyrical document of daily life in rural Senegal as it is the study of a single character, a contemplation of language as the storehouse of memory in which the filmmakers continue, through their own means, the invaluable archival efforts of their subject.
Up Next in Short Films and Mid-Lengths
-
Beast
Leaving December 1
Directed by Benjamin Nicolas | 11 mins | 2021
While the opening of this Expressionistic short film—depicting a perfunctory exchange between a rideshare driver and his passenger about Christmas shopping—gives little indication as to the direction it’s headed in, then the ominou... -
Canticle of All Creatures
Directed by Miguel Gomes | 21 mins | 2006
This playful but sincere tribute to St. Francis takes the form of a cinematic triptych. From the present day, in which a guitar-wielding bard ambles through the historic center of Assisi, Gomes jumps back 800 years, reviving the saint himself in a lusciou... -
Colobane Express
Leaving December 15
Directed by Khady Sylla | 52 mins | 1999
Losing ground to more modern forms of transit today, the colorfully painted “car rapide” minibuses that criss-cross the crowded streets and avenues of Dakar at breakneck speed carrying passengers and merchandise have been icons of the ...