Cinema – Film screening The Man Died by Awam Amkpa and introduction by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung

On January 9, there will be a screening of the film The Man Died, directed by Awam Amkpa, followed by an introduction by the chief curator of the 36th Bienal, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. The event will take place from 3 pm to 6 pm in the auditorium on the third floor. The movie will be shown in English with subtitles in Portuguese.

Based on the harrowing prison memoir by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, The Man Died is a powerful account of resistance, courage, and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. Set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s civil war, the film chronicles Soyinka’s imprisonment without trial by a brutal military regime determined to silence his voice. Through solitary confinement, torture, and deprivation, Soyinka’s determination to fight tyranny and injustice only grows stronger. Interwoven with flashbacks to his earlier life as a writer and activist, the film reveals the profound inner strength and unbreakable spirit that drive his resistance.

As he records his experiences on scraps of paper smuggled out of his cell, his writings become a beacon of hope and a call to action for others living under oppression. The Man Died is not merely a personal story, but a universal testament to the enduring power of truth and the necessity of standing up against tyranny. It is a reminder that, in the face of oppression, silence is not an option, and the human spirit can never truly be extinguished.

Awam Amkpa is an interdisciplinary scholar, filmmaker, and curator whose work moves across the intersections of theater, postcolonial theory, and the visual cultures of the Black Atlantic. He currently serves as Dean of Arts and Humanities and Vice Provost for the Arts at NYU Abu Dhabi, and is also a professor at NYU New York’s Tisch School of the Arts and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. His scholarly contributions—notably Theatre and Postcolonial Desires and Sojourners, Sultans and Slaves—examine how identities are performed across global histories. As a filmmaker, his most recent feature, The Man Died (based on Wole Soyinka’s memoir), has received wide acclaim, including the Africa Magic Award for Best Direction. His documentary filmography, which includes Winds Against Our Souls and Wazobia!, further establishes his role as an important chronicler of African and diasporic narratives. Amkpa’s curatorial projects, such as ReSignifications and Africa: See You, See Me!, have been exhibited internationally and challenge traditional tropes through the lens of modernism and transnational desire. Educated at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ahmadu Bello University, and the University of Bristol, he continues to bridge academic theory and artistic praxis on the global stage.

Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is a curator, author, and biotechnologist, currently serving as Director and Chief Curator of Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, Germany. He is the founder and former Artistic Director of SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, as well as Artistic Director of sonsbeek20→24, a quadrennial contemporary art exhibition in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He has also worked as Associate Curator for Adam Szymczyk’s documenta 14 in Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany, in 2017, and was a guest curator of Dak’Art: Biennale of Contemporary African Art in Dakar, Senegal, in 2018. In addition, he served as Artistic Director of the 12th and 13th editions of the Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography in Mali, assuming this role in 2019 and 2022. Together with the Miracle Workers Collective, he curated the Finnish Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. Prof. Dr. Ndikung has been a visiting professor in curatorial studies and sound art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and is currently Professor and Head of Faculty of the MA program in Spatial Strategies at the weißensee academy of art berlin. He was the first fellow of the OCAD University International Curators Residency in Toronto in 2020. His published works include, among others, The Delusions of Care (2021), An Ongoing-Offcoming Tale: Ruminations on Art, Culture, Politics and Us/Others (2022), and Pidginization as Curatorial Method (2023).

Service
Cinema – Screening of The Man Died by Awam Amkpa and introduction by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
36th Bienal de São Paulo – Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice
Jan 9, 2026
Fri, 3 pm
Auditorium, 3rd floor
Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion
Ibirapuera Park, gate 3
São Paulo, Brazil
free admission