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A young Senegalese woman’s move to France for domestic work anchors Ousmane Sembène’s 1966 feature debut. YBCA screens Black Girl on Nov. 28 as part of a series tracing political and stylistic currents in global Black cinema.
All times are local to the venue · America/Los Angeles
Saturday, November 28, 2026. Film starts promptly at 2 PM; no trailers. Arrive a few minutes early to be seated. Listed running time: 59 minutes; no event end time announced.
In Black Girl, the move from Senegal to France does not end at the threshold of a new home. The film follows a young woman working for a wealthy white couple, using the routines of domestic life to examine how colonial power can persist after formal empire. YBCA screens Ousmane Sembène’s 59-minute feature on Saturday, Nov. 28, at 2 p.m.
Mbissine Thérèse Diop plays the young Senegalese woman who travels to France for a domestic job. YBCA describes the couple’s apartment as a setting where the promise of work gives way to control and confinement—a focused way into the film’s critique of colonial attitudes in a society that regards itself as postcolonial.
The household scale matters: Sembène’s story connects migration and unequal power to the conditions of one worker’s daily life. Black Girl was his feature debut, made in 1966.
Further reading: Black Girl - YBCA ↗
YBCA lists Black Girl as a Senegalese film directed by Ousmane Sembène, with a running time of 59 minutes and a Blu-ray screening format. The central performance is by Mbissine Thérèse Diop.
Further reading: Black Girl - YBCA ↗
Ashley Clark—an author, programmer and Criterion Collection Curatorial Director—curated The World of Black Film: Revolutions. The series spans global Black cinema from the 1960s through the early 1980s, a period shaped by decolonization and political change. Its films explore subjects such as memory, migration, identity and rebellion. Clark’s book, The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films, is available to moviegoers at a discounted price from YBCA’s front desk.
The programme’s range includes Med Hondo’s West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty, filmed entirely on a constructed slave ship. YBCA identifies it as the African continent’s first musical. In Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki, surreal passages meet more realistic scenes in a depiction of Senegal in the early 1970s. Timite Bassori’s 1969 film La Femme au Couteau (The Woman with the Knife), from Côte d’Ivoire, reflects on a society undergoing postcolonial change.
Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga follows Angola’s independence movement. Flora Gomes’ first feature, Mortu Nega, considers the hardships that followed the guerrilla war leading to Guinea-Bissau’s independence from Portuguese rule. YBCA describes Horace Ové’s Pressure as the first British feature written and directed by a Black filmmaker, and the first to center Black characters’ perspectives. Menelik Shabazz’s Burning an Illusion puts a Black woman at the center of its story—a choice YBCA says was unprecedented in British cinema at the time.
Further reading: Black Girl - YBCA ↗ · The World of Black Film: Revolutions - YBCA ↗
The World of Black Film: Revolutions runs on selected Saturdays at 2 p.m. from Nov. 14, 2026, through Jan. 16, 2027. The schedule is listed separately; the selections’ different national settings and approaches help place Black Girl within a wider cinema history.
The film starts promptly, with no trailers. YBCA asks attendees to arrive a few minutes early to be seated. The listed running time is 59 minutes; no event end time is announced.
The ticket includes the film and gallery admission. Snacks selected by the series curator are included while supplies last. YBCA invites ticket holders to visit the galleries before or after the screening.
The screening is in YBCA’s Gallery & Forum Building at 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. The building houses the film screening room; the main entrance for the galleries and forum event space is at 701 Mission Street.
YBCA says its public entrances are accessible. The Gallery & Forum Building entrances at 701 Mission Street and the Garden Esplanade have electric push-button doors, and elevators serve both buildings. Wheelchairs are available first come, first served.
YBCA says accessible seating is available in the Forum for events and performances; contact Visitor Services to ask about arrangements for this screening. Sign-language interpretation is available with three weeks’ notice. One caregiver accompanying a visitor with accessibility needs is admitted free. ADA-defined service animals are welcome on leash and under their handlers’ control; pets, emotional-support animals and therapy animals are not permitted. For ticket questions, call 415-978-2787 during gallery hours.
The Screening Room is in the Gallery & Forum Building at 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. YBCA identifies 701 Mission Street as the main entrance for its galleries and forum event space. Its visit information says the campus is accessible by public transit, car, bicycle or on foot but does not list specific transit routes or parking details. Use the map link to calculate directions from your starting point.
YBCA lists a running time of 59 minutes. The event listing does not give a separate end time.
The $15 ticket includes the film and gallery admission, plus curator-selected snacks while supplies last. YBCA members attend free.
YBCA says its public entrances are accessible, lists electric push-button doors at the 701 Mission Street and Garden Esplanade entrances, and says elevators serve both buildings. Wheelchairs are available first come, first served; accessible seating is available in the Forum for events and performances.
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Map search by venue and address. Check the organiser’s entrance details before travelling.
Images from the linked sources. Each caption identifies the context of the image.
Event, planning and background information checked 2026-11-01 against the linked sources.