Past Film/Video | Documentaries | Series & Festivals

Delphine’s Prayers

(Les prières de Delphine, Rosine Mbakam, 2021)

Ohio Premiere

A woman in a dark top adjusts her matching headdress against a pale textured wall

Unorthodocs favorite Rosine Mbakam's latest film offers an enthralling portrait of Delphine, a fellow Cameroonian woman living in Belgium.

A quick-witted and passionate raconteur, Delphine takes Mbakam as a confidante as she relates tales of survival from her dramatic life story. The film also examines the artist-subject dynamic of documentary filmmaking and questions the exposure of the trust that the two friends have developed off-camera. Mbakam’s larger project of listening to African women and compassionately, creatively, and respectfully sharing their stories is developing into one of the most significant bodies of work in contemporary documentary filmmaking. (91 mins., DCP)

Mbakam was an unforgettable presence at Unorthodocs 2019, where she spoke after the Midwest premiere of her film Chez Jolie Coiffure, and she later contributed a short work to the Artist Residency Award project Cinetracts ’20, which you can watch on wexarts.org. If you haven’t had the opportunity to encounter Mbakam or her films yet, to borrow a turn of phrase from an NPR review of her work, get ready to “meet the filmmaker reinventing how African women are portrayed in movies.”

Don’t miss Prism, a brand new film that Mbakam codirected, which is also screening as part of Unorthodocs 21.

View the complete Unorthodocs 21 lineup

Image courtesy of Icarus Films

"An original filmmaker of exquisite sensibility…one of the foremost filmmakers of creative nonfiction working right now."
New Yorker

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FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health
Kaufman Development

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
The Wexner Family
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
American Electric Power Foundation
Adam Flatto
Mary and C. Robert Kidder
Bill and Sheila Lambert
L Brands Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease
Arlene and Michael Weiss

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M/I Homes
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Liza Kessler and Greg Henchel
Matrix Psychological Services
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Past Film/Video

Delphine’s Prayers