EXCLUSIVE: Mano Negra was one of the best-known alternative bands to emerge out of France in the 1980s, gaining cult status on the back of hits such as Mala Vida, Out of Time Man and King Kong 5.
Born on the fringes of the Paris music scene and fronted by Manu Chao, the group was only active from 1987 to 1994, but in that short time it garnered fans worldwide with its hybrid sound mixing rock, rap, punk, reggae and world music and lyrics in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
Aside from its music, Mano Negra was also renowned for its anti-system, alter-globalisation and pro-democracy spirit as well as its epic concert tours across Europe, Latin America and Asia, with the group also setting down in North America.
More than three decades after they disbanded, French director, writer and journalist David Dufresne, whose recent credits include police violence exposé The Monopoly of Violence, is in the throes of post-production on a documentary exploring their legacy.
Paris-based film company Goodfellas has unveiled details as it gears up to launch sales on the work at the European Film Market this month.
Dufresne, who first encountered the band in the 1980s as a regular at the New Moon club in Paris’ Pigalle district, has gathered some 700 hours of mainly exclusive archive footage, capturing the group behind the scenes and on stage.
It includes exclusive footage shot by some members of the band, capturing their El Expresso del Hielo train journey through Colombia, as well as their encounters with the likes of Joe Strummer, Urban Dance Squad, Jello Biafraand and more intimate behind-the-scenes moments. The archive footage is intercut with interviews with people close to the band.
Alongside celebrating their raw energy and musical legacy, Dufresne also explores how they symbolize a moment in history, through Mano Negra’s optimistic, power-of-the-collective worldview colliding with the emerging neo-liberalism of the time.
“About viewing the material, the film’s inner logic began to take shape. This story from the 1980s and 90s suddenly collided with our present day. What do we do with our utopias? How do we pass on a sense of joy without slipping into morbid nostalgia? How do we recapture the passion of that era without giving in to the idea that ‘money won in the end’,” explains Dufresne.
“Joy prevails everywhere throughout the footage. The band’s energy is not one of despair – like so many others – but one of Esperanza. Mano Negra existed for the span of four albums, and over several generations. From 1987 to 1994, the era of the last utopias, before the world chose the path we are still on today: Margaret Thatcher’s ‘There is no alternative’.”
“Our film tells the story of that utopia. It provides the soundtrack to that era, and explores what remains of it: its embers of freedom, still worth reigniting today, without nostalgia – or only the loud kind; and those bonds of friendship – of brotherhood and sisterhood.”
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Dufresne’s is known for his investigative books and edgy documentaries which also include pioneering interactive works such as Fort McMoney and Prison Valley.
The production has taken inspiration from Asif Kapadia’s documentaries Amy, Maradona and Senna in its form using clearly identified voices and animated graphics.
“It is also a collage, like Mano Negra themselves, like their album covers and music videos, As with The Monopoly of Violence, I let the form of the film be guided by the meaning contained in the archives,” he says.
The Monopoly of Violence which was supported by Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, explored police violence against protestors in the 2018-2020 yellow vest demonstrations, through archive footage and interviews with those on the receiving end of the blows, representatives of the social movement and police officers.
Dufresne is joined on the production by editor Florent Mangeot, who also worked on Pigalle (Arté, 2019) and The Monopoly of Violence.
The documentary is produced by independent music industry executive Emmanuel de Buretel who signed Mano Negra to Virgin and now produces under label Because Music, representing artists such as Justice, Manu Chao, Daft Punk, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Parcels, Amadou & Mariam and Christine And The Queens.
“I have always felt that the life of Mano Negra was a movie. I never stopped thinking that… It was seven years of life lived with absolute freedom, which inspired thousands of people around the world,” he says.
“Then they suddenly stopped one day. A real tragedy – with plenty of stories within the stories. Meeting David Dufresne convinced me that it was time to tell the story of Mano Negra on film.”
French producer Kristina Larsen, whose some 40 credits include Claire Simon’s Berlinale-selected Our Body and Pierre Thoretton’s L’Amour Fou, exploring the relationship between Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Berge – is also on board as producer under her Madison Films label.
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