Movie - “Lumières Noires” by Bob Swaim, 2006

In September 1956 at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists was held for three days. Aimé Césaire, Alioune Diop, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Richard Wright, and Frantz Fanon notably rubbed shoulders with Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Lévi-Strauss, René Depestre, Édouard Glissant, and James Baldwin.

In this 2006 documentary, Lumières Noires, American director Bob Swaim looks back on the circumstances of holding the conference and explains why the powers of the time did everything they could to disrupt it, denigrate its conclusions, and stifle its impact.