Film Screening & Talk: SISTERS IN DESTINY - Angela Davies, Gerty Archimede

L’ARBRE DU VOYAGEUR is organizing the screening of the documentary Sisters in Destiny (52 min 40 s), in collaboration with the Black History Month Round Table. This powerful cinematic work traces the historic encounter and deep bond between Angela Davis, a major international figure in the anti-racist and feminist struggle, and Gerty Archimède, a Guadeloupean woman, the first Black female lawyer in France and a pioneer of Caribbean feminism.

The film revisits a pivotal moment in the history of Black struggles in the 1970s. During her tour of the Caribbean following a trip to Cuba, Angela Davis made a stop in Guadeloupe, where she was arrested by French customs officials, acting on orders from the FBI. Gerty Archimède subsequently took on her legal defense. This long under-documented event contributed to the international visibility of Afrofeminism while affirming the distinctiveness of Caribbean feminism in the broader fight for justice, dignity, and equality.

Through rare archival footage, filming conducted in Guadeloupe and the United States, and visual reconstructions inspired by the 1960s and 1970s, the documentary offers an immersive and sensitive narrative. Far from being merely illustrative, the film is driven by Angela Davis’s own voice, lending the work remarkable political, historical, and human depth.

The screening will be followed by a public discussion in the presence of the director, who wishes to engage in dialogue about his cinematic approach, the film’s narrative and aesthetic choices, and the political, feminist, and symbolic legacy left by Angela Davis and Gerty Archimède.

This discussion will take place as part of a roundtable entitled
“Afrofeminisms in Dialogue: From the 1970s to Today,”
in which the director will also participate as a panelist, alongside speakers from academic, cultural, and activist backgrounds.

The roundtable aims to place Afrofeminist struggles of the 1970s in dialogue with contemporary dynamics by examining questions of transmission, commitment, memory, and the continuity of struggles, while highlighting the power and significance of Black female role models in the public sphere.