“Cinema is a weapon, a technique with which we can accomplish whatever we want,” Med Hondo once said in an interview. The late, great Mauritanian French actor and director is known as one of the most innovative filmmakers in African cinema, due to a filmography that tackled complex themes, especially colonial imperialism and race relations.

Of his works, the 1979 epic musical, West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty, stands as a seminal piece in African film for merging broadway flamboyance and fourth-wall breaking theater motifs into a singular cinema experience. Adapted from Les Negriers by Martinican playwright Daniel Boukman, the film was solely set on a mock slave ship, as Hondo digs into more than three centuries of imperialist oppression, using choreographed reenactments and musical numbers.

Later this month, a 4K restoration of West Indieswill open at the Film Forum, the iconic nonprofit movie theater in New York. From March 22 to March 28, first time viewers and reminiscent viewers will be able to catch Hondo’s iconic work, which has been digitally restored by the Harvard Film Archives and Ciné-Archives, using the original 35mm picture negative and magnetic track.

A cinematic reimagining of an entire people’s history of resistance and struggle, West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty takes into account the effect of the official French policy upon the colonized, the enslaved, and their descendants, interrogating the actions and motivations of the revolutionaries, the resigned and the powers that be. The story jumps across time and traverses across the West Indies, Europe and the middle passage.

In addition to the screening at Film Forum, a Med Hondo retrospective will be hosted by Anthology Film Archives beginning on March 22. Forty Five years after the initial release of West Indies, and five years after his passing, Hondo’s inventive and engaging films continue to be worthy of attention.

Watch the exclusive newly restored trailer below:

WEST INDIES: THE FUGITIVE SLAVES OF LIBERTY - Official 4k Restoration Trailerwww.youtube.com