Film screening and public round table with Dr. Joseph S. Jean, Yohannes Mekonnen, Dr. Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter
How can film help us see histories that have long been hidden — from the forced labour on indigo plantations in Haiti to the influence of Christian missions on fashion in Namibia and Jamaica? Beyond documenting the past, film can challenge dominant narratives, unearth silenced voices, and spark new ways of thinking about heritage, memory, and Afro-Indigenous knowledge.
This special evening celebrates the finissage of the BCDSS exhibition Enmeshed and Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency. It begins with the screening of two films by Haitian archaeologist Sony Jean and the Global Heritage Lab’s Visual Anthropology Fellow Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen. The screenings will be followed by a conversation with curators Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde (BCDSS) and Julia Binter (Global Heritage Lab), exploring how film can document, unmake, and reimagine the legacies of power and dependency. The audience is warmly invited to join the discussion and share drinks at the finissage.
Films: Dressing Resistance, 2025, 12 mins; The koutodigo: What a Tool Tells Us About Haitian Colonial History and Asymmetrical Dependency, 2024, 9 mins.
Program:
5-7 pm
Film Screening and Talk Dr. Sony Jean (University of Leiden) and Yohannes Mekonnen (University of Bonn)
Round Table and Discussion with the film directors Dr. Sony Jeani, Yohannes Mekonnen, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter, and Dr. Beatrix Ihde-Hoffmann
7 pm
Closing the exhibition “Enmeshed and Entwined – Fabrics of Dependency” by the Cluster of Excellence Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Bonn Centre for Digital Humanities (BCDH) and Reception.