Maka

English Title: Maka
Director(s): Elia Mouatamid
Production Year: 2023
Duration: 52 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Language: Italian, Arabic

Featured Guest(s): Elia Mouatamid, Simone Brioni

This documentary covers the life of Geneviève Makaping, a Cameroonian-Italian anthropologist, writer and the first Black woman to be named the director of a newspaper in Italy.

The film offers a detailed account of Makaping’s journey of migration from Cameroon across the desert and the ocean, her arrival in Italy in 1982 following the tragic death of her partner, her success as a journalist and television host, and her more recent relocation and current teaching job in Mantua.

Maka explores how the perception of migration and race has changed since Makaping first came to Italy in the 1990s. Maka is a bold statement about what it means to be “other,” to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in Italy.

Get individual tickets, or save with a membership. View all featured films or browse the schedule.