Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018)
Documentary (Original Language: French)
Rosine Mbakam
Introduced by Elisa Joy White
Nearing verisimilitude, the documentary presents extended shots of the quotidian activities in Jolie Coiffure, a hair salon owned by Sabine. The shop, located in Brussel’s African Matonge quarter, becomes a focal microcosm for the breadth and depth of conversations and concerns that have a significant impact on theAfrican Diaspora community in Belgium. The camera, effectively placed in the shop, becomes an extension of filmmaker Rosine Mbakam as she sits unobtrusively, yet very present, in the salon whileSabine goes about her days. The film brilliantly captures a range of migrant experiences expressed through joy, humor, trauma, fear and the mundane, offering a window (in some cases, quite literally) into the key issues and concerns about immigration status, the harsh stories of the journey to Europe, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, the objectification of Blacks by Whites, everyday racism, and the criminalization of migration. As well, Mbakam, who is Brussels-based and was born in Cameroon, shares comfort and friendship with Cameroonian Sabine, which facilitates an honest and expressive documentation of life within and beyond the salon. The camera lingers or, perhaps, lurks but is not meant to tell the story, objectify, nor mold a narrative. From the first scene, in which Mbakam is setting an exterior establishing shot from the hallway of the mall and Sabine advises her to move because of potential camera theft, it is clear that this is Sabine’s story to tell and–as the proprietor of the shop–she will have control of the narrative. So, like the filmmaker, the viewer sits in the shop with Sabine as well. As customers pass through, we are privy to stories of dating relationships, newborns, family deaths, the details of cooperative financial groups, francophone African soap operas screened on mobiles, aggressive competitions between hair salons, police raids, and sometimes humorous reactions as White tourists traversing the mall of African-run businesses gawk through the window into the shop. At one point, exemplifying the candid experience of sitting in the Jolie Coiffure salon, Sabine says, “Move along White people. If you go to the zoo, you pay.” Sabine not only owns the salon–she owns her dignity.