This March, an IC Q&A explored the distinctive mark that people of African descent have left on Europe.
Every month, International Cinema (IC) holds free showings for a selection of international films exploring a variety of themes and displaying a wide array of cultures. In March 2025, College of Humanities faculty members and guests presented lectures about four films before their showings.
“Reframing Art History”: A Q&A with Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
Did Black people exist in Europe during the 1500s? Ask social media, and some people will say absolutely not (while adding that Bridgerton isn’t historically accurate, for good measure)—but ask the experts, and they’ll give a resounding yes.
Director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu seeks to address this common misconception with his recent documentary, We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, combining history, art, and scholarly expertise to bring the African presence in Renaissance Europe back into the larger narrative of European history. On March 7, 2025, Kuwornu visited the IC to give a special director’s showing and Q&A, allowing attendees to experience his work in all its nuance and complexity.
The documentary follows Kuwornu’s own investigative efforts to find lingering evidence of Renaissance African European presence, featuring various historical figures, paintings, and even the names of streets in major cities like Paris. Though history as it is taught today may not center on the experiences of Africans in Europe, there’s plenty of evidence for their stories if people look for it, and Kuwornu focuses his lens to bring that evidence to the forefront.
In so doing, Kuwornu proves that not only were Black people part of European history, but some of the greatest artistic movements of the European Renaissance were built on the backs of their labor. In a video titled Making Of “We Were Here: The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe,” Kuwornu said, “This movie is my attempt to give voices to [their] stories, to bring forgotten lives to light that have helped shape the Europe that we know today.”
Particularly poignant is Kuwornu’s use of an empty gallery frame throughout the documentary. Each topic segment in the documentary begins and ends with a picture frame on a black tablecloth, in which an unidentified Black person places cut fragments of paintings and art from the Renaissance to center the Black figures in them as the next subject of discussion. Through this process, Kuwornu asks viewers to reconsider how they experience art, reshaping the traditional cultural narrative as viewers might experience it in museums by forcing them to focus on the overlooked Black figures that exist in each piece.
This movie is my attempt to bring forgotten lives to light.
In art, as in history, the evidence of Africans in Europe exists in the background, almost never becoming the focal point. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist: Kuwornu found so much African influence he could’ve included that he had to be particularly deliberate about what made it into the documentary, raising interesting questions about what parts of African European history should be incorporated into the larger historical narrative.
“For each aspect of our life [and] our society, we are framing things—concepts, or stories. But of course, we aren’t framing the entire stories, so it’s up to us to choose what is relevant or not relevant,” Kuwornu said. “For me, [the frame] was a really powerful concept.”
Below is a selection of the other films shown during March.
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
“If you had known what the truth of the matter really was, do you think you still would have come here?”
From director Zhang Yimou comes the wuxia film House of Flying Daggers. Set during the decline of the Tang dynasty, the story follows two police officers who must take down the rebel group House of Flying Daggers by killing their leader within ten days—an impossible task. The film offers plenty of action, adventure, and twists to keep audiences on their toes and is perfect for fans of films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Nocturnes (2024)
“Moths have been on earth for almost 300 million years . . . as a species, we haven’t seen what the moths have seen.”
Deep in the Himalayas exists a species of moth—hawk moths—with particular tastes when it comes to the temperature, humidity, and other aspects of the environment around them. This documentary tracks lepidopterist Mansi Mungee’s research as she studies the effect that rising ecosystem temperatures have on these moths and what that might mean for the rest of us. The documentary is as atmospheric as it is moving and asks audiences to consider the importance of even the least creatures on earth—and to reflect on how our actions affect them.
Agent of Happiness (2024)
“Happiness should come from the heart.”
This is another stunning documentary set in the Himalayas, except that this piece focuses not on the insects but on the people living there. The country of Bhutan ranks the happiness of its people as its most important metric, using “happiness agents” to survey their populace and keep tabs on how happy the country really is. The documentary follows one of these agents, Amber Kumar Gurung, as he interviews people across the remote mountain country. It’s a beautiful film that explores what aspects of life affect human happiness and what it means to be truly happy.
To read more about previous films and lectures featured at the IC, click here.