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Spell Reel, the debut feature from Portuguese artist Filipa César, is a collaborative reflection on West African political history—and the role of moving images in the creation and legacy of that history. [...] César has worked [...] to preserve the history of revolutionary cinema in Guinea-Bissau through research, digitization, and dissemination of the holdings at the National Film Institute of Guinea-Bissau [...] Filmmakers Sana Na N'Hada, Flora Gomes, José Bolama Cobumba, and Josefina Crato, who studied filmmaking in Cuba at the directive of revolutionary leader Amílcar Cabral, set out to document Guinea-Bissau’s war of independence from Portugal (1963–74) and the subsequent years of socialist rule. [...] Following the 1980 military coup, much of the revolutionary films were lost; those that remained were little known and at risk of disappearing. —MoMA