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Spell Reel

Name: Spell Reel
Director: Filipa César
Released: 2017
Duration: 96 min

Representation Score

6.8/10

Good

2017

Director

Filipa César

Runtime

96 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Filipa César’s documentary is a sophisticated piece of cinematic scholarship that moves beyond simple inclusion. It focuses on the systemic deconstruction of how media is produced and consumed through a post-colonial lens. The film's primary impact comes from its intentionality in addressing racial ability to act and challenging the Western gaze. By re-appropriating the moving image, it reframes historical power dynamics and the history of the cinematic apparatus. While it lacks specific LGBTQ+ or disability-focused narratives, its structural critique of coloniality provides a profound foundation for multi-layered historical revisionism.

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Category Breakdown

Does Spell Reel have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film doesn't have clear LGBTQ+ identities or character-driven romantic arcs, but it explores non-traditional perspectives by deconstructing colonial structures.

How does Spell Reel portray gender?

Good

It centers a female guerrilla fighter in the history of Guinea-Bissau, shifting women from passive roles to active participants in political resistance.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Spell Reel?

Excellent

The film highlights the Black body and the decolonization of the cinematic gaze by using archival footage to challenge Eurocentric film history and prioritize the ability to act of colonized peoples.

How does Spell Reel represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The narrative critiques Western institutional power and the colonial gaze by examining how the cinematic apparatus was used as a tool of coloniality and historical oppression.

Does Spell Reel include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no significant evidence regarding the portrayal of physical or neurodivergent disabilities within this documentary framework.

Present on Screen

Focuses on the decolonization of the cinematic gaze and Black ability to act.
Subverts gender hierarchies by centering female political resistance.
Critiques Western institutional power and colonial archives.

Limited or Absent

Lacks explicit LGBTQ+ identities or character-driven queer narratives.
Does not represent physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Official Synopsis

The first image is in black and white, upside down and projected into a black box that then becomes the frame. It now hovers like a time capsule near a man’s face. He looks down, listening in on a female guerrilla fighter and translating her words from Fulani. Within the capsule, money is counted and paid out as a new currency, the numbers of the years run backwards in the black box. A 16-mm film glides through the man's hands and is transferred to a laptop screen frame by frame.

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