De @vonden: Recognition – Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva

Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva is a film programmer and photographer based in Belgium. In 2016, she founded Recognition, a Brussels-based community film screening program dedicated to cinema by and for people of African descent. Recognition curates screenings of films by African storytellers and contributes to the visibility of Black art, literature, and culture. What began in Brussels has grown into an international initiative that also focuses on the repatriation of films to their local contexts, aiming to make cinema accessible once again to African audiences on the ground.

In addition to her work with Recognition, Lyse is active as a programmer at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia. She previously worked as a film consultant for the Berlinale Forum.

During this evening, Lyse will introduce the film Dahomey by Mati Diop and, following the screening, engage in a conversation with the audience about the film and its broader themes.

About the film Dahomey (Mati Diop)

In Dahomey, director Mati Diop follows the return of 26 royal artifacts from the former Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), which were held in French museums for more than a century. The film explores what restitution truly means — not only as a political or legal gesture, but also as an emotional, spiritual, and cultural event.

This @vond opens up a space to reflect on how cinema can contribute to a decolonial rethinking of history.

Programme of the evening

• Introduction by Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva
• Screening of the short film In vele handen (20 min) by the collective Faire-Part
• Talk by Lyse on In vele handen and introduction to Dahomey
• Screening of Dahomey (Mati Diop)
• Q&A, moderated by Lyse