Sambizanga (1972/2021): The Thin Green Line Between Canons and Revolutions

Abstract: In this article, I examine the affective qualities of Sambizanga (1972/2021) to ask what happens to the revolutionary grainy aesthetics, the militancy of the imperfect image, the subversive qualities of a damaged 16mm print, when a film enters the canon. To do this, I analyze and compare the differences between two versions of Sambizanga and explore what the damage and degradation of a New York Public Library (NYPL) 16mm print, that circulated as part of Black Lives Matter activism, contributes to the film's revolutionary themes. I argue that a feminist theory of resistance that is dominant in the 1972 version becomes less prominent in the shift toward narrative cohesion in the 2021 version, and that the scratches of small gauge material history on the NYPL 16mm print release a revolutionary affect that is different from the aestheticization of revolution emphasized in the conservative act of Sambizanga's 2021 "restoration."