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In this captivating documentary filmed in a single tiny room, viewers step inside an underground hair salon with its charismatic proprietor, a Cameroonian immigrant named Sabine. She and her employees style extensions and glue on lashes while watching soaps, dishing romantic advice, sharing rumors about government programs to legalize migrants and talking about life back home in Cameroon.

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is written with a sensitivity for those who have left everything behind with the hopes of something more. It is also written with the understanding that Sabine’s story is incomplete and still in progress. This guide is an invitation to explore topics and conversations around race, community, belonging, the (undocumented) immigrant experience and the power of storytelling.

This guide is designed for people who want to use Chez Jolie to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues and communities in dialogue around issues presented in the film. This discussion guide is meant to inspire people with varying degrees of knowledge about these topics to enter the conversation and hopefully stay in the conversation in order to impact change and awareness.

In collaboration with the filmmaker, the discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the topics in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests.And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult and/or uncomfortable.

Synopsis

The Jolie hairdresser's shop in Brussels is run by Sabine, a Cameroonian woman who migrated to Brussels. Sabine’s shop is a meeting place and hub for people from the continent of Africa—a community. The film explores tensions of racism, the fear of entering a country undocumented, the loss of leaving home and the hope for something more.

Key Participants

• Rosine Mbakam, Cameroonian-born filmmaker living in Belgium
• Sabine, Cameroonian-born hair stylist living in Belgium as undocumented immigrant

Key issues

• Disorientation and displacement
  • Home and belonging
  • Community
  • Finding yourself and your people in a new space
  • Who gets to be an expat? Who is labeled an immigrant?
• The white gaze
  • Tensions with whiteness and space
  • The violence and trauma of colonial whiteness
• Disaporic community
• Cinematic power and storytelling from the community
• The immigrant experience
  • The tensions of being free and feeling restricted
  • The fear and the weight of being an undocumented immigrant
  • The burden of leaving everything behind

Race, History, & Colonialism

In 2020, people began gathering in the United States and all over the world to resist systemic racism, inequality, and state violence following George Floyd’s murder. Belgium, the country that Chez Jolie is filmed in, also suffers from these social and political ills. A consistent thread in the film that can be heard, observed, and felt is the lasting presence of colonialism and racism. Through masterful filmmaking and community connection illuminated in the film, audiences are asked to witness the ways that the white gaze - connected to histories of colonization - continues to impose its dominance and power. In Chez Jolie, audiences are introduced to Belgium’s colonial racist past. Belgium’s history of racism and colonialism cannot be discussed without referencing Leopold II,, the Beligian King who owned the country of Congo as personal property. The understanding of Belgium’s historically racist past cannot be conceptualized without considering the prominence of the country’s colonial whiteness that is still looming over the country. As communities organize to resist white supremacy in 2020, the global reach of racism is evident: while monuments memorializing Confederate generals were brought down in the US, Belgium dismantled their statue of Leopold II.

As a colonizer, Leopold II was responsible for the deaths of millions of Congolese people more than a century ago. His identity has been preserved and celebrated through dominant narratives and in more conspicuous ways in the form of monuments, statues, and buildings in the city of Brussels and throughout Belgium. He was remembered as someone worthy of celebrating despite the pain and trauma he caused Black people in Belgium from the African diaspora. Over time, Leopold II has been seen as a stain on the nation of Belgium, but the violence he imposed on Africans and Black people can still be felt and experienced in the racist attitudes present in Belgium. In the film, we are able to sense some of the ways these anti-Black ideas persist and continue to threaten and violate the rights and humanity of African residents in Brussels, including undocumented people from the continent of Africa.

Matongé: A home for African Residents in Brussels, Belgium

Chez Jolie is filmed in Sabine’s salon which is located in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels there is an area called Matongé, which is where Sabine’s salon is located. The area came to be in the late 1950s when an influx of Congolese students began visiting Belgium, a hub for African residents. Since then Matongé has developed into an African quarter. This development only happened after Congo gained their independence in 1960. Nowadays, the space is a place where African and black residents find solace and community and also where tourists frequent. Matongé neighbors one of the richest shopping districts in Brussels and, because of this, tensions of race, class and belonging run rampant. Matongé has long suffered from a reputation of crime, but black citizens and African residents of Brussels describe the area as a home away from home and one of the safe places for them in the city.

So, amidst the dual pandemics of systemic racism and the novel-coronavirus, like many communities in 2020, people of Brussels are confronting how certain groups of people have been pushed to the outskirts while colonial and racist histories prevail. In Brussels residents have demanded the removal of Leopoald’s II statue in order to recognize that a lot of modern-day Belgium was developed at the expense of the lives and labor of Black people under colonial rule. The violence of colonization and historical legacy of white supremacy is not taught in the history books or schools in Belgium. In Belgium, there is a failure to acknowledge the country’s colonial and racist past and involvement in the slave trade. The absence of historical reckoning and responsibility-taking with regards to the violence inherent to Belgium’s founding is evident in the statues that persist, the raids of undocumented African residents, the history that goes without discussing, and the violent white gaze from tourists who visit the one place, Matongé, that African residents have in Brussels. Sabine and her community have cultivated a community, a place of relative safety, and a place to nurture belonging in Matongé—the creation of this community is a reclamation of space and place and power, and it also highlights the ways that freedom continues to be limited in contemporary Belgium.

Undocumented Immigrants & Migration

The term ‘undocumented immigrant’ refers to anyone residing in any given country without legal documentation. This could also mean a person residing in a country with an expired visa and/or without proper permission from the government. The human rights and social justice struggles in support of the rights of undocumented people around the world, Belgium included, is battle of a terrain, identity, and rights. Sabine and others who entered Belgium without national citizenship deserve human rights, justice, protections, and equity. Organizations like the Platform for International Cooperation for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) work to ensure the mobility for all and to ease the normal realities of undocumented people because they deserve dignified standards of living and human rights. Immigration laws and rights are rooted in human rights issues, and are not solely political issues. As we see in the film, Sabine and her peers are attempting to construct different conditions for themselves and their communities, but even on this aspirational journey, they are made to live in fear. Importantly, we must consider what conditions undocumented people are leaving and what possibilities they are migrating towards; we must remember that the decision to leave ones’ homeplace is never an easy one to make and brings its own degrees of struggle. Globally, there are a lack of protections and rights to ensure the safety of undocumented immigrants because often there are seen as “illegal” or “criminal” for entering a country without permission. In Belgium specifically, there is a lack of protections and basic rights for immigrants and people of color; therefore, undocumented immigrants from Africa in Belgium live within precarious realities.

The white gaze

The white gaze is a term that defines how Black (and non-Black) people of color are often trapped by the (limited) imaginations of white people. The gaze occurs when people view Black people and Blackness with the eyes and ideas of white eurocentrism and ethnocentrism, which posits whiteness as superior and better than all else. This is the basis for supremacist logic—whiteness is centered as the normal or the “good” culture, sometimes subconsciously, but manifests in policy, practice, society, schooling, and every other aspect of culture if not deeply interrogated. The white gaze shapes the value that white people, and other dominant groups, place on the lives of others. The white gaze shapes stories of history, of resistance, of domination. The white gaze, itself, is violent in its power to shrink others and its constant degradation of the “worthiness” of a Black person in relation to white standards.

The white gaze is decentered in Sabine’s story, but we see it peering through the windows. Sabine and those that visit her shop in Matongé attempt to exist in their own space free of this oppressive condition, but their capacity to thrive is constantly violated by white tourists and the immigration police—they cannot seem to safely escape this gaze and its constant threat. White people in Brussels, and worldwide, who view their culture as the better than and/or the quintessential culture are living out a legacy that is the consequence of white supremacy and colonialism. For this reason, it is important to consider whose cultures and stories are being shared and by whom. The power of this film is layered and dynamic - the entire film unfolds within the salon, the story of Black women by a Black filmmaker, the intimacy achieved, the joy, the centering of love and care - this is the story that is centered and framed. This is the process of refusing the white gaze, and brilliantly, Rosine Mbakam reverses the gaze - as viewers we are able to look upon the strangeness of those white tourists, the recentering of the Black experience from the point of view of that community is at the foundation of this story and the power of this community.

Nothing About Us Without Us

Nothing About Us Without Us, similar to the hip hop phrase For Us by Us (FUBU), is a mantra that became the rallying call for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Recently, other oppressed and marginalized groups have taken up this mantra to mean that movements, stories and change must center the people that the fight is for. Mantras turned movemenents turned action like we see with the Rosine and how she films Sabine is how black people can move away from the white gaze and create for and with those who have similar stories and experiences.

Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen. You could pose a general question (examples below) and give people some time to themselves to jot down their thoughts, share their reflections with a partner, or to think about their ideas before opening the floor for discussion.

PROMPT ONE: Black Immigrant Experience - How does being Black and undocumented impact the immigrant experience?

• InChez Jolie, the weight of being a Black undocumented immigrant is something the audience is exposed to throughout the film. How do fear, violence, and trauma emerge as aspects of this experience? Likewise, how do the yearnings for visibility and safety become exposed in this film?
  • In what ways does this film push you to reconsider ideas of “freedom” for undocumented immigrants?
• How do you think the freedom of movement clashes with the immigrant experience?
  • Given the social, political and racial conditions in Belgium, in what ways is freedom experienced by Black people in the film?
  • In what ways do we see the limited freedom of Sabine and those who visit her shop?
• Had you ever thought about the trauma, violence and weight of the (undocumented) immigrant experience? If yes, in what ways? If no, how doChez Jolie and Sabine open up new ways of thinking of the pain associated with migrating somewhere new?
• Who gets the privilege of being an expat? Who is labeled an immigrant? In what ways are these labels informed by race and class? What consequences do these labels have on the freedom and possibilities of the people who are defined by them?

PROMPT TWO: Creating Community as Safety and Belonging

• In Chez Jolie, the salon becomes the meeting place and, essentially, the hub for people from the continent of Africa. Why do you think this is so? In what ways does the community that forms in the salon expand and nuance your ideas of community, home, and family?
• How does the film cement the importance of finding yourself and those with similar experiences? In what ways do you believe common experiences are integral to the immigrant experience...as a form of survival, belonging, and self-preservation?
• What do you notice about Sabine’s role in cultivating and shaping this community?
• In what ways is the salon a space where African residents who visit and gather can be free? In what ways is this community also restricted?
• Can you think of other (marginalized/oppressed) groups of people who are “free” but also restricted in certain places?

PROMPT THREE: Colonialism, Power, and the white gaze

• How does this film explore the tensions between race, space, belonging and power?
• In what ways does this film make you (critically) question the impacts that histories of racism and colonialism (specifically colonial whiteness) continue to have on non-white people?
• Is there a violence inherent in the white gaze? If so, can you describe the violence? How does the white gaze impact, limit, or threaten those who are being gazed upon? What new questions do you now have?
• How do you observe violence and trauma of the white gaze and colonial whiteness in Chez Jolie? What feelings emerge for you?
• How do Sabine, those who visit the shop, and the filmmaker take power back?

PROMPT FOUR: The Power of Framing and Storytelling

• Rosine Mbakam is a Cameroonian-born filmmaker living in Belgium. She took great care in how she framed Sabine’s experiences. Mbakam expressed that the film became a collaboration between her and Sabine, as Sabine helped her film all the sides of her story. Why is it important to consider who is telling whose story? What are the ethics of telling another persons’ story?
• In what ways is it important that the storyteller shares common cultural experience(s) as the subject and/or those whose story they are telling? In what ways do you think the collaboration between Rosine and Sabine impacted the story?
• In what ways does Chez Jolie offer new stories and narratives of Blackness and the (undocumented) immigrant experience?
• In what ways does Rosine use her power as a filmmaker to frame this story and take back power?
• Nothing About Us Without Us is a mantra that became the rallying call for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Recently, other oppressed and marginalized groups have taken up this mantra to mean thatmovements and stories and change must center the people that the fight is for.
  • How is this mantra relevant and important to Chez Jolie? Why is “nothing about us, without us” important? In what ways does this align with Chez Jolie?
  • In what ways does the identity of the filmmaker impact the way the stories are told, framed, and represented? How does she bring the audience intimately into this film? How does she center the voices and experiences of the African residents?
• Rosine Mbakam used what is called the chamber method to make this film. She describes this method “...as the feeling of being stuck, not only in the story but the art.” The aesthetic of the film was a cinematic choice.
  • What feelings did this method invoke?
  • What thoughts, feelings and questions emerged about space and place by filming only in the salon?
  • How does this method privilege Sabine and those who visit the salon?

• Read more about undocument and stateless people, and find out ways you can take action through Amnesty International and The Platform for International Cooperation of Undocumented Migrants.
• Seek out organizations that educate your local community about the realities undocumented communities and people face locally.
• Read about the rights of immigrants and how they connect to race and class through the ACLU.
• Read about the history of racism in America and find resources here.
• Watching the film Living Undocumented which follows the lives of eight undocumented families and how they navigate immigration policies in the United States.

About the Author

Maureen Nicol
Maureen Nicol is a Doctoral student at Columbia University studying Early Childhood Education and the Founder and Director of Camp Story - a pop-up arts camp based on the continent of Africa. Her background is in teaching and education. Maureen is committed to working with young children and educators to ensure every child and teacher knows their value, worth and power. Maureen's research and work interests have always always situated children of color but specifically young Black girls. Her ultimate goal is to make schools safer places for young Black girls with the idea of safety being articulated based on the terms and articulations of Black girls. Maureen is also researching and building curriculum for young girls (specifically young girls of color) on how they can be seen themselves as feminists using arts integration. In her free time, Maureen enjoys going on long walks with her dog, baking and maxing out her library card with good reads.

Discussion Guide Producers, POV

Chrissy Griesmer
POV Engage Intern

Courtney Cook
Education Manager

Thanks to those who reviewed this resource:

Rachel Friedland
POV, Senior Associate, Programs & Engagement

The creation of POV’s Education Resources is made possible by the generous support of theOpen Society Foundation.