Kinshasa and its inhabitants are in darkness. They wait and struggle to get access to light. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, Tongo Saa is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa's nights.
Rising up at night
A film by
“a film which rises to the challenge of filming darkness, without ever losing sight of the daily resistance and resourcefulness of a population facing a truly difficult situation”
“a film which rises to the challenge of filming darkness, without ever losing sight of the daily resistance and resourcefulness of a population facing a truly difficult situation”
Nelson Makengo
Biography
Nelson Makengo is a filmmaker whose work oscillates between contemporary art and film. His latest film Up at Night (Best Short IDFA 2019) has screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and has been nominated by the BFI as one of the 350 best films of 2020. E’ville (2018) won the Sharjah Art Foundation Award at the Videobrasil Biennale in 2019. In recent years, Nelson Makengo has collaborated as a director with Al Jazeera and Meta, has been a jury member of several festivals and is a Sundance Documentary Film Institute and Doha Film Institute Fellow. Tongo Saa (Rising up at night) is his first feature documentary.
Filmography
• Rising up at night (2024) – feature
• Up at Night (2019) – short documentary
• E’ville (2018) – short documentary
• Tabu (2016), short documentary
• Souvenir d’un été (2017), short documentary
• Théâtre Urbain (Urban Theater) (2017), short documentary
