MAID IN SOUTH AFRICA
– film
Steven Cohen wonders about the body and its exploitation, referring to prostitution, backbreaking manual labor, relationships between different communities … He thus pays tribute to his 84-year-old South African nanny, who remains since his childhood the housemaid of the family.
Original format : color video / 4:3
Single Channel Digital Video
12 min 35 sec
I am interested in the politics of nudity, not by sex as commerce. This work deals with the slave trade more than the flesh trade. It is a personal film and a portrait of the Apartheid, a naive striptease and a personal confession. Nomsa Dhalami is 84 years old. For 58 years, she has maintained the houses of the White people, cleaned their homes, fed their families and looked after their dogs. I was brought up by Nosma because my mother was an alcoholic for several years.
Maid in South Africa is not a mockery but the simple truth, the brutal exposure in a gentle way. We are deprived of the luxury of not looking. We look. We see Noma’s life, without glamor, spending her time cleaning up the impossible, and his dignity in the face of exploitation.
Steven Cohen
With Namesa Dhlamini
Design and production: Steven Cohen
Production: Steven Cohen
Co-production: Ballet Atlantique –Régine Chopinot (La Rochelle, France), Les Subsistances (Lyon, France)
Filming in South Africa.
STEVEN COHEN COMPANY
24 rue Succursale | 33000 Bordeaux | France
Samuel Mateu
Administrateur de production | +33(0)6.27.72.32.88
production[@]steven-cohen.com