Sunday, October 21st
3:00PM
Maysles Cinema
THE MINISTER OF GARBAGE
Dir. Quentin Noirfalisse
Documentary, 2018, 75 Min.
French & Lingala, w/ English subtitles
Some see him as a madman, others as a genius. Sharp-eyed, nimble-fingered, polio-stricken Emmanuel Botalatala is Kinshasa’s “Minister of Garbage”. At 64, Botalatala is nearly penniless, but he is still driven to create politically conscious artwork crafted entirely from the trash spewed forth by Kinshasa’s 10 million residents. Now conscious of his own mortality, he dreams of creating a cultural center to house his work. As the film unfolds, his unique creative vision becomes proxy for the vital role of art in a nation’s search for identity.
Quentin Noirfalisse is a young Belgian director and the co-founder of Dancing Dog Productions. After studying journalism at IHECS he worked in DR Congo (South Kivu) in 2009 and 2012, where he developed an interest for this country’s social, historical and cultural dynamics. Since 2014, he has worked on The Minister of Garbage, his first documentary. In 2013, he launched a transmedia documentary on the political impact of hackers, Geek Politics. He currently works on a transmedia project on the social challenges of Brussels and a new feature documentary on the protection of rainforest in the Congo basin. He’s also a freelance journalist, co-founder of Médor Magazine and has published in Le Vif/L’Express, Moustique, Slate.fr, Imagine, Alter Echos, Notre Afrik, Le Soir.