Togoland Projections

French original title: Togoland – Projections
German title: Togoland Projektionen

original languages: Ife, French, Tem, Mina, Bassar, Kabiyé, Anufo, Dagbani, sign language, Konkomba

with: Mensanh Degbe, Dermane Halassani, Abla Mawouvi, der Historical Cavalry of Chaudjo, Malou-Ouro Issa Touré, Griot Kanan M’bamanana, Zola DJ, the village elders of Adibo, Fammiè Kandjiné and her deaf-mute pupils, with the audience in Kamina, Sokodé, Bassar, Bandjéli, Mango, Iboubou und the Cinereflex meeting in Lomé

writer & director: Jürgen Ellinghaus
camera: Rémi Jennequin
sound: Caled Boukari
editor: Nina Khada
assistant director: Nassirou Saliou
camera assistant: Antoine K. E. Evolasi
sound assistant: Dieu-Donné Tchani
projectionists (CNA – Association Togolaise du Cinéma Numérique Ambulant): Joël M’Maka Tchédré, Essovalè Metcheri, Innocent Logdouti
driver: Koko Avisse, Herman da Silva, Koffi „Kaiser“ Kabouré
trainee (Togo): Espoir Tchani
set manager: Patrick Ayele-Yawou

commentary voice: Jürgen Ellinghaus
voice Meg Gehrts: Manuela Weichenrieder
English language coaching: Tim Lee
music: Eustache Kamouna

sound design & mix: Anders Wasserfall
color grading & completion: Arno Schumann
head of post-production: Denis Liakhov
assistant editor: Gaïa Rase Casanova, Pierre Mamolo
translations EN: Babelfisch Translations – Justin Hillier

languages: English, Ife, French, Tem, Mina, Bassar, Kabiyé, Anufo, Dagbani, sign language (ASL), Konkomba

production manager: Véronique Puvilland (Les Films de l’oeil sauvage), Henriette Degener (maxim film), Madjé Ayité (UGP), Günter Thimm (rbb), Gérard Claudel (Vosges TV)

funding provided by:
CNC – Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée
nordmedia – Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen/Bremen
Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (with participation of the CNC)
Ciclic-Région Centre-Val de Loire (with participation of the CNC)
PROCIREP – Société des producteurs – and ANGOA
Fund for Audiovisual Innovation, CNC
Promotion Award of the Rendez-vous de l’histoire, Blois, 2015, with the support of the ECPAD, the INA, the Region Centre, with the collaboration of the Ciclic

The film screenings in Togo were supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lomé

commissioning editor: Rolf Bergmann, rbb (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg)
producers: Frédéric Feraud, Peter Roloff, Madjé Ayité
French-German-Togolese co-production: Les Films de l’œil sauvage, maxim film, Universal Grace Production with and Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and Vosges TV with the participation of TV5MONDE

world sales: AndanaFilms – Stephan Riguet, Grégory Bétend

pictures on this site: © Les Films de l’oeil sauvage

Critics

J. Zimmerman in Video Librarian, Mar. 7, 2025:
https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/documentary/togoland-projections/
“Togoland Projections offers a multifaceted exploration of this painful colonial history from Togo’s independent present. The film prompts viewers to reflect on the historical context of these images and challenges the distorted narratives perpetuated by the colonial gaze. With its unique approach, the documentary serves as a potent history lesson, drawing attention to a largely overlooked chapter in Germany’s colonial past.”

Tina Adomako in The African Courier, Nov. 9, 2024:
https://www.theafricancourier.de/sliderpost/film-on-germanys-colonial-past-in-togo-premieres/

Kathleen Hale in Educational Media Reviews, USA, Oct. 31, 2024:
https://emro.libraries.psu.edu/record/index.php?id=7998

Eric Mandel in kunst+film (German), Nov. 25, 2024:
https://kunstundfilm.de/2024/11/togoland-projektionen/

Rouven Linnartz in film-rezensionen (German), Nov. 26, 2024:
https://www.film-rezensionen.de/2024/11/togoland-projektionen/

Daniel Zorilla Romero, Katalogtext (Spanish) für Cinemancia Metropolitano Film Festival Medellin, Kolumbien, August 2024:
https://cinemanciafestival.com/pelicula/togoland-projections/

Eleonora Ceccarelli in Taxidrivers (Italian), April 17, 2024:
https://www.taxidrivers.it/365350/festival-di-cinema/bolzano-film-festival/togoland-projectionen-proiezioni-itineranti-a-togo.html

Jürgen Ellinghaus on his film TOGOLAND PROJECTIONS

As a documentary filmmaker, dealing with Togo’s colonial past appealed to me in several ways. Firstly, there were these archival images, unique for the time they were made. On the occasion of my first trip to Togo, I learned that in today’s Togo they were known only to a handful of specialists in German studies or historians but were not only completely unknown to local filmmakers or the wider public, but also hard to access. I found this untenable, more than 100 years after the creation of these images and today’s possibilities of digital technology.

And I was surprised that, when it comes to Togo, the term “model colony” is still used, a dirty word that was put into circulation by German colonial propaganda at the end of the 19th century. At least two questions arise in this context: What can a “model colony” be other than a particularly efficient system of exploitation of human and natural resources? And: What actually happened under German colonial rule in Togo, behind this mirage of the “model colony”?

My impression after some research on the spot and dealing with historical source material and reading literature, some of which has only been published in recent years, was that a people had been cheated of its history for decades.

The reason that this was possible has to do with many factors: the after-effects of German propaganda beyond the 30-year German colonial period – both among parts of the Togolese population and among the British and French colonial successor powers, further with the division of German Togo between the victorious powers of the First World War, which also incorporated their booty territories into their respective linguistic spheres (today: Ghana, English-speaking, Republic of Togo: French-speaking). The linguistic and territorial divisions had far-reaching consequences for the population and led to a fragmentation of historical memory; they hindered both the transmission of historical experience between generations and historical research. Added to this was the fact that the archival materials of the German Imperial Colonial Office, which were kept in Potsdam until the end of the GDR, were only accessible to a very limited extent as a result of the division of Germany, and not least the instrumentalisation of a pronounced German-friendliness of many Togolese by those in power there after independence in 1960, depending on diplomatic or domestic political expediency.

American Airlines On Your Next Flight
July 1 – Dezember 31, 2024

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Theatrical release in Germany, Austria, Switzerland
November 28, 2024
Drop-Out Cinema eG

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Festivals & Special Screenings

RAI FILM Festival – Royal Anthropological Institute – Bristol, England
June 11-15, 2025

AIFF – Addis International Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
May 2025

ILFF – International Labor Film Festival
Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Diyarbakır – Turkey
May 11, 2025 – 2:00 pm – Barış Manço Kültür Merkezi, Kadıköy, Istanbul

DocLuanda – Festival Internacional de Cine Documental, Luanda,  Angola
April 10-16, 2025

DOC Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
March 28, 2025 – 6:00 pm – Auditório IPDJ
Prémio Vestígios – Melhor Uso de Arquivo – Award for Best Use of Archive

iREP – iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival, Lagos, Nigeria
March 27-30, 2025

MICE – International Festival of Ethnographic Cinema
Museum of the Galician People, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
in competition
March 12, 2025 – 6:30 pm

Christine Cinéma Club, Paris, France
special screening of the Bureau des Arts de Sciences Po (IEP de Paris)
discussion in presence of the director
March 12, 2025 – 8 pm

FESPACO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
FESPACO Special woth Fédération Africaine de la Critique Cinématographique and Goethe Institut
in presence of the director
February 25, 2025 – 5:00 pm – Lycée Nelson Mandela
February 27, 2025 – 8:00 pm Goethe Institut

SANFICI – Santander Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, Colombia
February 26, 2025 – 4:00 pm – Allianza Francesa

Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris, France
February 13, 2025 – 6:30 pm
discussion in presence of the director

International Film Festival, Dhaka, Bangladesh
January 11-19, 2025

FICA Festival Internacional de Cinema Austral, province of Córdoba, Argentine
Two awards: “Largometraje Destacado” (Outstanding Feature Film) and “Diseño de Producción Destacado” (Outstanding Production Design)

Festival Internacional de Cine de los Derechos Humanos de Sucre, Bolivia
December 12, 2024

Jagran Film Festival, India
Premiere New Delhi – December 5, 2024 – 3:45 pm – Sir Fort Auditorium 4
and more venues until March 25, 2025

Zeughauskino, Berlin, Germany
German Historical Museum
December 6, 2024 – 8:00 pm
in presence of the director

Moving History Special, Potsdam, Germany
Filmmuseum Potsdam
December 5, 2024
in presence of the director

Black International Cinema Berlin, Germany
November 22, 2024 – 7:16 pm (sic!) – Schöneberg city hall, Marlene-Dietrich-Saal
German version with additional English subtitles
Special Acknowledgement film award

Festival international du Service Arts et Cultures de l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
Focus Deutschland (Germany)
November 21, 2024 – 6:00 pm
in presence of the director

Eine Welt Filmtage, Düsseldorf, Germany
Metropol Filmkunstkino
November 21, 2024 – 7:00 pm

Augen Blicke Afrika – Afrikanisches Filmfestival Hamburg, Germany
November 17, 2024 – 6:00 pm – Studio-Kino
German version with English subtitles
in presence of the director

Afrikanische Kinowelten, Nuremberg, Germany
Filmhaus Nürnberg
November 13, 2024 – 6:30 pm
in presence of the director

International Biennial Film Festival of Documentary Ethnological Film, Bratislava, Slovakia
November 12, 2024 – 10:00 am – V-klub

Festival Lumières d’Afrique Besançon, France
November 2-10, 2024

ETNOFF – International Ethnographic Film Festival, Skopje, North Macedonia
November 1, 2024

Festival Internacional de Cine en Nicaragua
Museo Convento San Francisco, Granada
October 24, 2024

FICPA – Festival Internacional de Cine de Pasto, Colombia
October 17-22, 2024

Les Rendez-vous de l’histoire, Blois, France
October 13, 2024 – 2:15 pm – Les Lobis, Salle 3
in presence of the director

Festiwal Filmowy NNW, Gdynia, Poland
Documentary Competition
October 4-7, 2024

Festival International du cinéma des Monts Kabye, Kara, Togo
September 26-29, 2023

Festival Internacional de Cine de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Argentine,
Prize for the best film in the International Competition Feature Documentary
September 4-14, 2024

Portobello Film Festival, London, England
September 9, 2024  – Documentary Night – in presence of the director

Cinemancia Festival Metropolitano de Cine, Medellín, Colombia
September 6, 2024 – 8:00 pm – Teatro Otraparte, Envigado
September 8, 2024 – 8:00 pm – Teatro Caribe, Itagüí

ARKIPEL
Jakarta Documentary & Experimental Film Festival, Indonesia
Official Competition
August 22 – September 3, 2024

FICAA – Festival International de Cine Africano de Argentina – Observatorio Sur
Argentine
Latin America premiere – Feature Film Competition
August 28, 2024 – 7:00 pm – Biblioteca Nacional, Buenos Aires
August 24, 2024 – 8:00 pm – Museo Estancia Jesuítica, Jesús María (Provincia de Córdoba)

FIFTO – Festival International du Film du Togo, Lomé, Togo
August 2024
in presence of the director

FIFDOPO
3. Festival International du Film Documentaire de Porto-Novo, Bénin
Official Competition  – Special Award of the jury
July 27 to August 1, 2024
in presence of the director

German Embassy Cotonou, Bénin
July 26, 2024
in presence of the director

Goethe Institute Lomé, Togo
July 24, 2024 – 6:30 pm – free admission
in presence of the director

Kunstmuseum Moritzburg – Film im Puschkino
Halle, Germany
Supporting program to the exhibition “It’s all about collecting … Expressionism | Museum | Colonialism”
May 14, 2024 – 6.30 pm
in presence of the director

FestIC
Festival des Identités Culturelles, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
May 7, 2024 – 7.00 – quartier Ouidi – opening event

FESTIFIS
Festival International de films Identitaires et Solidaires, Nikki, Bénin
April 23-27, 2024

TV5MONDE Afrique
Premier broadcast
April 21, 2024

Bolzano Film Festival Bozen, Italien
April 17+18, 2024
in presence of the director

Filmfest Bremen
April 13, 2024 – 6:00 pm – City 46
April 14, 2024 – 2:30 pm – City 46
in presence of the director

Internationale Grenzland-Filmtage Selb/Aš
Germany
April 5, 2024 – 8:00 pm
in presence of the director

MiradasDoc
XVII International Documentary Film Festival and Market of Guía de Isora
Tenerife, Spain
March 21, 2024 – 5:00 pm

La CAM presents
Cinémathèque Robert Lynen, Paris, France
March 13, 2024 – 7:00 pm
in presence of the director

African Premiere
Luxor African Film Festival, Egypt
Diaspora Competition – Special Mention of the Jury
Februar 10, 2024 – 6 pm – Al-Uqsur, King’s Island, Jolie Ville, Big Hall
Februar 12, 2024 – 8 pm – Al-Uqsur, Culture Palace
in presence of the director

DOC-Cévennes, preview tour, France
in the presence of the director:
Jan. 18, 2014 – Utopia Saint Bernadette – Montpellier
19 Jan. 2024 – La Filature – Lasalle
21 Jan. 2024 – Cinéma L’arc-en-ciel – Ganges
additional presentations in schools

French TV Premiere
Vosges TV
December 12, 2023

Nordic Film Days Lübeck, Germany
November 4, 2023 – 10.15 am – Stadthalle 7
followed by a colonial city walk in presence of the director

World Premiere
DOK Leipzig
German Competition Documentary Film
October 10, 2023
in presence of the director

USA
Icarus Films
To the film: www.icarusfilms.com/if-togo

Theatrical release in Germany, Austria, Switzerland
November 28, 2024
Drop-Out Cinema eG

World Sales
AndanaFilms
Stephan Riguet
Grégory Bétend

Please contact us:
berlin@maxim-film.de
+49 (30) 30 87 24 89

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