Moving to Chad as a child in the late 1990s, filmmaker and scholar Bentley Brown grew up speaking Chadian Arabic. He discusses how his unique upbringing shaped his perspective on identity and storytelling and explores the complexities of being a chameleon between cultures. Using film and comedy to bridge gaps in understanding and challenge misconceptions about the Sahel region, he tells us about his early films screened at international festivals and his presence on social media to his recent work documenting the Sudanese Revolution and water crises in Chad, highlighting the power of art to preserve history and navigate the in-between spaces of global identity.
Moving to Chad as a child in the late 1990s, filmmaker and scholar Bentley Brown grew up speaking Chadian Arabic. He discusses how his unique upbringing shaped his perspective on identity and storytelling and explores the complexities of being a chameleon between cultures. Using film and comedy to bridge gaps in understanding and challenge misconceptions about the Sahel region, he tells us about his early films screened at international festivals and his presence on social media to his recent work documenting the Sudanese Revolution and water crises in Chad, highlighting the power of art to preserve history and navigate the in-between spaces of global identity.
0:00 An Identity Formed in the Sahel
06:05 The Ethics of the Storyteller
12:07 Comparative Dialectology and Global Connections
22:56 Comedy as a Tool for Cultural Critique
29:33 Filming the Sudanese Revolution from Afar
40:08 Water, Trauma, and the Chadian Landscape
55:03 Chadian Music and the Synthesizer Revolution
Bentley Brown is a filmmaker and scholar whose work revolves around disidentification, language, and artistic translations of science. A Berlinale Talent, Durban Talent, and Africa Movie Academy Awards nominee, Brown’s past films include Behind the Sun (Hot Docs 2023), First Feature (International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019), and Oustaz (Berlinale 2016). Brown holds a PhD in Emergent Technologies and Media Arts Practices from the University of Colorado Boulder and has served as an Assistant Professor at the American University of Sharjah since 2023.
Connect with Bentley Brown 👉 https://instagram.com/waldbrown
Hosted by Mikey Muhanna
Connect directly with Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://instagram.com/mikey_mu
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊 https://spoti.fi/47I59ns