Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

A four-part essay-series by the director of I Am Not Your Negro, following the sentence that Conrad's Kurtz wrote on his report in Heart of Darkness. Peck narrates a history of colonialism, genocide and white supremacy from Columbus to the American West to the Congo, mixing archive footage, animation and staged scenes. It is the story the textbooks soften.

Why it’s here: The series connects things the curriculum keeps apart: colonial violence, slavery, the Holocaust, and the ideas that justified each. What's punk is the refusal of the neutral tone, and the fact that it names the thread. What's pedagogical is that it can be paused, discussed and argued with. Pairs with Discourse on Colonialism, Orientalism and King Leopold's Ghost. Note: it is long, essayistic and dense, and some critics call its sweep too broad.

Mory, a cowherd on a motorbike with horns on the handlebars, and Anta, a university student, want to leave Dakar for Paris and will do anything to afford the boat tickets. Mambéty's debut is a loud, dreamlike film in which a young couple's escape plan keeps crashing into the new Senegal that independence left behind.

Why it’s here: The film puts the postcolonial dream on screen as an escape fantasy. What's punk is the form: collage, noise and jump cuts, from a director who refused to follow the European rules. What's pedagogical is that it asks why leaving is the only story the country offers its youth. Pairs with Xala and Black Girl (suggested 10-19), and Sembène's films. Note: experimental and not linear; includes an animal slaughter scene.