In 2011, French filmmaker Joris Lachaise directed the film Convention: Black Wall / White Holes. He used the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of Mali's independence and his journey through the country as an opportunity to assess bodies and words, which – as the title suggests – constantly interrogate the conscious and unconscious relations with, and references to, the colonial heritage. Knowing that he is not on uncharted cinematic territory, the filmmaker explicitly refers in voice-over to Jean Rouch and Pier Paolo Pasolini, among other leading documentary makers (Chris Marker, Johan Van Der Keuken). He intends to ‘pay them a tribute’, but he also claims ‘Africa's right of defence’ and ‘retrospective criticism’ through ‘these images’. Here, it should be kept in mind that these two filmmakers hailed from France and Italy, countries that had built colonial empires. Because they belonged to a generation that experienced the peak of empire and the decolonisation that followed, both expressed their sympathy for the independence of African countries: Rouch chose a ‘humanistic’ position based on a personal and empirical relationship with African people, while Pasolini opted for Marxist theoretical positions. Lachaise refers more to Pasolini and includes a sound abstract from his film Notes Towards an African Orestes (1970), in which we hear the voice of the Italian filmmaker, followed by Lachaise indicating that this ‘film draft’ of a never completed film has, in a way, allowed him to choose the form of a ‘film project’ in Convention. In fact, Lachaise is in line with Pasolini, because his film is open in form, offers a kaleidoscopic gaze, is divided into a series of chapter notes and rejects any form of grand linear narration. However, he also mentions the criticism of African students, who blamed Pasolini for his fixed, essentialist and generalising representation of Africa and tribalism.

This chapter will draw from Lachaise's comments and analyse his documentary approach in Convention, in order to identify how, as a Western filmmaker filming ‘Africa’ today – a decolonised Africa, of course, but still influenced in many ways by the colonial period – he positions himself vis-a-vis this double cinematic heritage of the French ethno-filmmaker and Italian film poet. This heritage seems of particular interest for contemporary independent documentary films.