Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices)
by Raphaël Grisey, Bouba Touré
France / Germany, 2022
streaming regions: GLOBAL, EXCEPT:US
synopsis
Using rare cinematic, photographic, and sound archives, Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) recounts the exemplary adventure of Somankidi Coura, an agricultural cooperative created in Mali in 1977 by western African immigrant workers living in workers’ residences in France. The story of this improbable, utopic return to the homeland follows a winding path that travels through the ecological challenges and conflicts on the African continent from the 70s to the present day. To tell this story, Bouba Touré, one of the principal actors, returns to the heart of his personal archives, documenting peasant struggles in France and Mali as well as following the personal stories of migrant workers over many decades. The film is a story of transmission, kinship and cinematographic geographies: throughout it, voices come to accompany Bouba and bring forth the narrative of a forgotten memory leading towards the future.
about the directors
Raphaël Grisey. born in 1979, lives in berlin. Grisey uses film, editorial and photographic works to address politics of memory, architecture, migration and agriculture (such as the films prvi deo, red star 2006 with f. lazar; cooperative, 2008; the exchange of perspectives ; minhocão, 2011; amor e progresso, 2014; remanescentes 2015).
Bouba Touré. (1948-2022), lived in Paris and Somankidi Coura, Mali. He lived in France in the foyer Pinel from 1965 and worked at the metal factory Chausson until 1969. He studied at the Vincennes university and was a projectionist at cinema 14 juillet and l’Entrepôt, Paris. Photographer since the 1970s, he documented the lives and struggles of migrant workers and peasants in france and mali. Touré co-founded the co-op of Somankidi Coura in 1977.
In 2015, he published the book “notre case est à saint denis, xérographes publishers.
Since the 1980s, Touré has exhibited works and given talks in associative and foyer’s circles and more recently in art institutions. His photographic work has been presented amongst other places at the Bamako Encounters 2019 and in the Hamburg Photography Triennale in 2022.
Since 2006, Touré and Grisey worked together on collaborative projects with the current name of sowing Somankidi Coura, a generative archive since 2015. it lead to various workshops, film and theatre production for example with the theatre group Kàddu Yaraax in 2017 and 2019, as well as publications and texts, such as Sowing Somankidi Coura, a generative archive (2017, archives book publishers) their works were shown amongst other venue at Kàddu Yaraax theatre forum festival, Kunsthall Trondheim (no), Archive Kabinett, Savvy Contemporary, HKW, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Den Fries, 9th Contour Biennale (be), Parco arte vivente, Un lieu pour respirer, Centre Pompidou, Dhaka art summit, Open justice and in Konsthall Göteborg. Their feature long film Xarassi Xanne-crossing voices has been awarded in 2022 at the festival Cinéma du Réel, African Film Festival of Tarifa (Spain), Monde en vues (Guadeloupe) & Archivio Aperto (Bologna – Italy).
