The film’s original French language title is La noire de…, which captures Sembène’s focus on the progressive attempts on the part of her French colonizer employers to erase the protagogonist’s Senegalese heritage and identity as she works for them in their home in France. Filmmakers and scholars Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman write that "in 1961, shortly after Senegal declared its independence from France, Ousmane Sembène, a self-educated dockworker, assigned himself an impossible task: to create a true African cinema as a ‘night school’ for his people. His explosive debut – a film described as the first African feature (true in spirit, if not in fact) – inspired a form of fearless, socially engaged, and uncompromising cinema across the globe.” Sembène repositions the political/social lens while at the same time creating stunning images in black and white. content warning: suicide Event Url