Pretty guilty

Tabu (d. Miguel Gomes)

Nicely done. Had I seen this years ago, I would have liked it more. Times have changed. Pure aesthetics especially in works under the banner of avant-garde and experimental are no longer enough. At what point is actual politics evaded in the parade of pure images? Tabu is a well-crafted movie about Portuguese colonialism using gorgeous black and white cinematography. It uses the aesthetics of silent cinema to gorgeous and, at times, heartbreaking effect. I can heap more praises however this is by no means a decolonizing work. It still insists on telling a story about white pain and guilt at the expense of the actual pain of the colonized. We have seen these images over and over again for more than a century of cinema’s existence: voiceless natives; who stare at the camera; they are usually indigent; they are shown doing manual labor; and there is no visible sign of dissent much less to overthrow the director from his chair. It’s just not good enough for me. Yes, it is a fascinating experimental work but it just seems “experimental” means “yes we want to address our colonial past but we want to do it in a visually pleasing way and the only radicality we can manage is not in the politics but in the artistic technique”.

#2019 #87