Doors open 5:30 p.m., event starts 6 p.m. Event is FREE, but requires a reserved ticket.
Click here to learn about accessibility at the Tomorrow Theater.

Join us for a screening of Mambar Pierrette presented in partnership with the Portland Art Museum’s Africa Fashion exhibit and Cascade Festival Of African Films. Habiba Addo will be sharing a performance piece as a window to Ancient and Contemporary African artistry and culture. This choreography displays the intersection between different arts disciplines. A sharing of Dance, Music and Fashion and how they play on and amplify one another. Starts at 6 p.m.

A 30 minute discussion with visiting filmmaker Mmakgosi Anita Tau (For Them That Prey) will follow the film. Starts directly after Mambar Pierrette ends.

Mambar Pierrette Starts at 6:30 p.m.
2023. Directed by Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam. Runtime: 93 minutes. French with English subtitles. 

Following the limited US release of two of her documentaries —The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman, a portrait of her mother and repression by the French, and Chez jolie coiffure, which explores the African diaspora via a hair salon in Belgium, Mbakam’s dramatic debut offers insight into the daily lives of women in contemporary Cameroon, enlisting her cousin, Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat, to play the titular character.

A succession of customers come to Mambar Pierrette, the neighborhood seamstress and reliable confidant, who has her own strife to deal with as a single mother barely making ends meet. As she readies clothes for upcoming social events and the commencement of the school year, heavy rain threatens to flood her workshop – one of many misfortunes in which she will have to find ways to stay afloat. Mbakam’s instincts as a documentarian are put to good use in this unique character study that foregrounds common struggles and bonds among women in Africa, too often overlooked in mainstream cinema.

Mmakgosi Anita Tau
Mmakgosi Anita Tau is a co-founder of Sekei Girls, a mentorship program that promotes literacy and nurtures creative talents in young scholars. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Motion Picture Medium, and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Film at Syracuse University. Mmakgosi is visiting Portland from Feb 11th to Feb 17th. 

Habiba Addo
Habiba Addo, a native of Ghana is a performing and teaching artist in Dance, Theater and Music.  She has studied and experienced formal and informal training in Afro-Cuban, Afro- Brazilian, West African and Western Dance genres. She shares her love for music, dance and storytelling  through study and teaching.

Cascade Festival of African Films
The Cascade Festival of African Films is the longest running African Film Festival in the United States, located in the unique city of Portland Oregon, and completely free to the community. Our festival is dedicated to providing a platform for showcasing African cinema of Africa through African lenses. As a primarily non-competitive festival, we aim to feature creators from diverse perspectives with stories from across the continent and its diaspora, while celebrating the power and impact of storytelling with the community and beyond.