This year sees African Cinema in the spotlight at the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF). With only five films to represent the second largest continent in size and population, the spotlight this year is sadly very narrow.
The seminar entitled “Cinemas of Africa.Goodbye Isolation held on Thursday morning nevertheless revealed an optimistic front to the under-representation of African Cinema. The selection – including Fespaco (aka “African Cannes ) winner “Clouds over Conakry and the Mozambique-Portugal entry “Sleepwalking Land – is certainly impressive.
South African director Firdoze Bulbulia, who also moderated the panel, and Naky Sy Savano, director of Miroirs D’Afrique Festival, thanked CIFF Director Ezzat Abou Ouf for fulfilling his promise the previous year of giving greater attention to African cinema this round.
Finances have been the most pressing obstacle in the production and distribution of African films. The panel braved the challenge. “To hell with that, said South African director Darrell Roodt, responding to concerns regarding money. Roodt has made 22 films on 35mm and found a cheaper alternative in digital cinema, in which he has 10 titles under his name.
“You should forget about the West, said Roodt, talking also of the conventions of expensive 35mm cinema, suggesting “some aesthetic is clearly emerging out of the digital era in African cinema.
Alhaji Ahmad Sarari, who has made over 15 films, said that Nigerian filmmakers had shortcuts to overcome pre- and post-production costs. “We sell our belongings to make a movie, said the director, adding that they also “sell directly to the market.
Funding from Western sources came with strings attached, said Sarrari.
Another concern was the need to preserve archives of African cinema, for which Director of Cinematheque Francaise called upon the efforts of individuals. “The industry of cinema is amnesiac, said Serges Tobiana, a self-professed conservateur adding, “We don’t want the past to be forgotten.
Language is another arena in which the African isolation is acutely felt.
Bulbulia pointed out that languages identified as overarching in Africa were colonial, yet there was no singular “African language.
Unlike Bollywood, which presented cinema in local languages and also Hindi as a “super-dialect, most of Central Africa was divided into “micro-dialects, the panel concurred.
Much of African cinema presented itself in French, creating a “sense of schizophrenia said Patricia Moune, festival director of Ecrans Noir.
Comedians from all over Africa do not express themselves naturally in French, she said.
The panelists nevertheless found positive examples in the Amhazigh cinema of Morocco and North Africa and the Wolof language productions of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene.
Talking back to what has been documented in words and films – images of poverty, hunger, and disease – was also incumbent upon the African cineastes.
Roodt said he had seen a “frightening phenomenon in Iran of a movie aesthetic that pandered to festival audiences. Rather, suggested Roodt, films must cater to home audiences, from which an aesthetic would naturally emerge.
Again, funding complicated such issues, said Moune, who found “something perverse in the French financing of African films where “the price was to change the script. She found it absurd that women wore traditional attire in modern settings – presenting protagonists as “more exotic and “tailor-made to the French public.
Jury member and Nigerian director Mahmood Ali-Balgun who was present in the audience placed responsibility squarely on the West, “If the apathy of the West begins to change, the world will see more of African cinema.
Yet, Africa and Africans need to tell their own stories, the panel repeatedly reiterated. “We are tired of being referred to as the developing world, said Nigerian director Teco Benson. “Civilization starts here in Africa, and Egypt is here, and stories must be told here, however sweet or bitter.
CIFF was called upon by the audience and panelists alike to continue and broaden its focus on African cinema. “This will be from now on the responsibility of CIFF, said Abou Ouf responding to the call for a “platform for African cinema.
