feature: lauryn hill narrates göran hugo olsson-directed documentary, concerning violence

“You are rich, because you are white. You are white, because you are rich.” When soul songstress Lauryn Hill received a paper letter and manuscript while in prison about a documentary inspired by the 1961 anti-colonial text The Wretched of the Earth, she couldn’t help but be compelled, since she’d coincidentally been reading the book. The documents came from Director Göran Hugo Olsson who was in the process of creating his documentary, Concerning Violence, based on the book by Afro-French psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary, Frantz Omar Fanon. Olsson knew Hill was a fan of Fanon’s, and faired well by reaching out, when Hill agreed to narrate his script.

By Sabrina Renée, AFROPUNK Contributor

A Swedish filmmaker with a knack for displaying the disparity in human suffering, Olsson’s 2011 project, The Black Power Mixtape, featured music by ?uestlove, appearances by Talib Kweli and Erykah Badu, and told the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. The core message in his latest offering disassembles the mythical advantages of colonialism, putting its flaws on display and claiming it as the blame for the mass break down of culture across many races.

Primarily composed of highlighted excerpts from Fanon’s work and archival footage from the African decolonization wars of the ‘60s and ‘70s , including scenes from the Angolan War of Independence, Olsson declared not to create another archive film, a la The Black Power Mixtape, until he was handed Fanon’s work and was blown away by the text: “I mean, for me, it’s almost prophetic in some ways, and very disturbing in other ways. I’m not complaining or dissing any other film but I was personally tired of documentaries where you see a person or a couple of persons in suffering, and then you are supposed to feel nice in the screening room and go to on the street and save the world. I though it time to put a message on the screen, as clear as possible,” Olsson explained to DAZED. 

When asked about social constructs, he stated, “When you buy a T-shirt for ten dollars or less, you have to understand that two hands put that fabric together and pulled it through the sewing machine. There is no machine making T-shirts, the machine is just making the needle go up and down with the whatever you call it. But the two hands have to pull the fabrics through the machine. Two hands put them together. And if you think they have big machines that make everything, the stuff around us, it’s not true, it’s deeper, and they aren’t paid, and it’s okay. But it will not be for free long: and the people who do this, they’re going to be pissed off.”

The film won a special developmental film award at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, and was nominated for a world cinema documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film opens at Manhattan’s IFC Center on this Friday, December 5th.

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