Film Screening & Discussion – Je Suis Noires “Becoming a Black Woman” with filmmaker Rachel M’Bon

The Center for Race and Gender and the Institute of European Studies along with our co-sponsors invite you to a film screening of Je Suis Noires “Becoming a Black Woman” with filmmaker Rachel M’Bon, followed by a discussion with Akasemi Newsome, Associate Director of Global, International and Area Studies/Institute for European Studies. 

In Switzerland, a country of neutrality, new, unfamiliar voices are being heard. Voices of women who fight for the recognition of structural racism, deconstruct stereotypes and confess their double identity as Swiss and Black. It is in this context that Rachel M’Bon begins her own search for identity. On her way to liberation, she questions her past, her present and holds up a mirror to her country and her peers.
 

Rachel M’Bon, born in Switzerland to a Congolese father and a Swiss mother, is a journalist and film-maker.

After a federal diploma in communications and studies in journalism, she worked for over 15 years, for several Swiss media groups in the society and culture section.

In 2018, she launched the Instagram account NOIRES to highlight black and brown women in Switzerland, which would later become the account of her association NWAR (Now we are Rising).

Her first film, “Je suis noires” , co-directed with Juliana Fanjul, premiered at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in March 2022, exploring themes of identity and the issue of racism. Its success earned it the Swiss Film Prize in March 2023. Rachel is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion, founding NWAR and the Afropea Cultural Center in 2023. She is also vice-president of the FIFDH Foundation Board since 2023.

In September 2023, she was named one of the 100 personalities of the year by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, and continues to work on filming and writing new narratives about black representation.

For full details, see https://events.berkeley.edu/crg/event/268809-je-suis-noires-becoming-a-black-woman-with