West Indies ou les nègres marrons de la liberté

WEST INDIES is a visually and aurally stunning musical appropriately set on a giant slave ship symbolizing the trinity of Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Hondo places the slave ship in an abandoned Citroen factory to highlight the foundational role of the so-called triangular Atlantic slave trade in the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence and rise to power of the bourgeoisie, massive urbanization, the appearance of modernity and the global spread of capitalism, exploring the parallels or even the unbroken historical continuum between the forced migration of the Atlantic slave trade and the more recent migration of Afro-Caribbean subjects to former colonial metropoles.
In this explosive demonstration of virtuosity, Med Hondo deftly takes advantage of the staging, framing and montage possibilities of filming in one location and in widescreen format to narrate four centuries of history through genial tracking shots crafted with exquisite and geometrically precise high angles, horizontal and vertical long takes, changes in temporality through camera movement, lush colors and poignant lyrics and choreographies which invite the spectator to join in the struggle to transform the world.