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This symposium will examine the ideas that led to the emergence of ‘African cinema’. Acknowledging that ‘African cinema’ offered itself for critical global recognition in relation to issues of cultural identity, national independence movements, and Pan-African solidarity, the discussants will be encouraged to consider the declarations, articulations, and the work of those referred to as the ‘pioneers of African cinema’. These parameters will also be considered in the context of contemporary debates around filmmaking in Africa and the African diaspora; and in relation to current perspectives on cinema that incorporate concepts such as ‘Black Africa’, ‘Africa North of the Sahara’, Afrofuturism, Afrosurrealism, and the meaning of cinema in the twenty-first century. The films will be made available for audiences as free streaming, via the Africa Institute website, between 21 – 23 October, 2021.
One of the first short features produced by Africans, Afrique sur Siene was filmed in Paris in 1955, and has been called the launching point of African cinema. Questions focused on Africa are posed by a generation of artists and students, in search of cultural understanding.
Directors: Jacques Mélo Kane, Mamadou Sarr and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra | France | 21 minutes | 1955 | French with English subtitles
Returning from the United States to his village in Niger, a man brings western outfits to his close friends, who begin to identify with the image of a western cowboy.
Director: Moustapha Allasanne | 34 minutes | 1966 | French with English subtitles
Youssef Chahine’s adaptation of Marxist writer Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi’s 1953 novel, set in the 1930s, is an epic chronicle of life in a rural Egyptian village. A small peasant village’s struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner, The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited.
Director: Youssef Chahine | 130 minutes | 1970
Gaston Kaboré is a film director from Burkina Faso. He trained as a cinematographer in Paris at the École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) and completed a degree in history at the Sorbonne University. He served as the Secretary General of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) from 1985-1997. In addition to numerous documentaries, his films include the features Wend Kuuni (God’s Gift – 1982) winner of the Silver Tanit at Carthage Film Festival 1982 and winner of the César Award for Best French Language Film in 1985; Zan Boko (1988), winner of the Silver Tanit, Carthage Film Festival 1988; and Rabi (1992) has won the Jury prize at Carthage Film Festival in 1992 and was shown at the first New York African Film Festival in 1993. His 1997 film Buud Yam was selected for “La quinzaine des réalisateurs” at Cannes film Festival and went on to win the Grand Prize at FESPACO. Gaston Kaboré is also the founder of IMAGINE, a film training center in Ouagadougou that offers residencies and workshops for African artists.
Mamadou Diouf teaches African Studies and History at Columbia University in the School of Arts and Science. He is Leitner Family Professor of African Studies (Middle Eastern, Southern Asian and African Studies Department) and History (History Department). He previously served at the University of Michigan (2000-2007), CODESRIA, and Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. His more recent publications include the following edited books: Deborder la Négritude. Arts, Politique et Sociétiés à Dakar (with Maureen Murphy, 2020), The Arts of Citizenship in Africa. Spaces of Belonging (with R. Fredericks, 2015), Les Arts de la Citoyenneté au Sénégal. Espaces Contestés et Civilités Urbaines (with F. Fredericks, 2013) and Tolerance, Democracy and the Sufis in Senegal (2013). Diouf is currently preparing the forthcoming exhibition, “Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Reinvention of the Universal” with Sarah Frioux-Salgas and Sarah Lignier for the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris (2023). Since 2011, Diouf has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council, and has chaired its Executive Committee since 2020. He is also the chair of the Scientific Board of the Réseau Français des Instituts d’Études Avancées.
Lindiwe Dovey is Professor of Film and Screen Studies at SOAS University of London, where she has been on the faculty since 2007. From 2019-2024 she is Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies project, which has brought together an international team, partners and participants to try to make Screen Studies and the film industry more globally representative and equitable by centring African filmmaking, and through creative, scholarly, and activist work. Originally from South Africa, Lindiwe has authored two acclaimed books and many articles on African filmmaking, and also co-founded, and has directed and curated, two of the most important African film festivals in the UK: Film Africa and the Cambridge African Film Festival. She holds a BA in film production and theory from Harvard University, and a PhD in African film and literature from the University of Cambridge.
Black Girl/La Noire De (Ousmane Sembene, 1966)
Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958)
This symposium will examine the ideas that led to the emergence of ‘African cinema’. Acknowledging that ‘African cinema’ offered itself for critical global recognition in relation to issues of cultural identity, national independence movements, and Pan-African solidarity, the discussants will be encouraged to consider the declarations, articulations, and the work of those referred to as the ‘pioneers of African cinema’. These parameters will also be considered in the context of contemporary debates around filmmaking in Africa and the African diaspora; and in relation to current perspectives on cinema that incorporate
tion to current perspectives on cinema that incorporate concepts such as ‘Black Africa’, ‘Africa North of the Sahara’, Afrofuturism, Afrosurrealism, and the meaning of cinema in the twenty-first century. The films will be made available for audiences as free streaming, via the Africa Institute website, between 21 – 23 October, 2021.
One of the first short features produced by Africans, Afrique sur Siene was filmed in Paris in 1955, and has been called the launching point of African cinema. Questions focused on Africa are posed by a generation of artists and students, in search of cultural understanding.
Directors: Jacques Mélo Kane, Mamadou Sarr and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra | France | 21 minutes | 1955 | French with English subtitles
Returning from the United States to his village in Niger, a man brings western outfits to his close friends, who begin to identify with the image of a western cowboy.
Director: Moustapha Allasanne | 34 minutes | 1966 | French with English subtitles
Youssef Chahine’s adaptation of Marxist writer Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi’s 1953 novel, set in the 1930s, is an epic chronicle of life in a rural Egyptian village. A small peasant village’s struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner, The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited.
Director: Youssef Chahine | 130 minutes | 1970
Gaston Kaboré is a film director from Burkina Faso. He trained as a cinematographer in Paris at the École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) and completed a degree in history at the Sorbonne University. He served as the Secretary General of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) from 1985-1997. In addition to numerous documentaries, his films include the features Wend Kuuni (God’s Gift – 1982) winner of the Silver Tanit at Carthage Film Festival 1982 and winner of the César Award for Best French Language Film in 1985; Zan Boko (1988), winner of the Silver Tanit, Carthage Film Festival 1988; and Rabi (1992) has won the Jury prize at Carthage Film Festival in 1992 and was shown at the first New York African Film Festival in 1993. His 1997 film Buud Yam was selected for “La quinzaine des réalisateurs” at Cannes film Festival and went on to win the Grand Prize at FESPACO. Gaston Kaboré is also the founder of IMAGINE, a film training center in Ouagadougou that offers residencies and workshops for African artists.
Mamadou Diouf teaches African Studies and History at Columbia University in the School of Arts and Science. He is Leitner Family Professor of African Studies (Middle Eastern, Southern Asian and African Studies Department) and History (History Department). He previously served at the University of Michigan (2000-2007), CODESRIA, and Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. His more recent publications include the following edited books: Deborder la Négritude. Arts, Politique et Sociétiés à Dakar (with Maureen Murphy, 2020), The Arts of Citizenship in Africa. Spaces of Belonging (with R. Fredericks, 2015), Les Arts de la Citoyenneté au Sénégal. Espaces Contestés et Civilités Urbaines (with F. Fredericks, 2013) and Tolerance, Democracy and the Sufis in Senegal (2013). Diouf is currently preparing the forthcoming exhibition, “Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Reinvention of the Universal” with Sarah Frioux-Salgas and Sarah Lignier for the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris (2023). Since 2011, Diouf has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council, and has chaired its Executive Committee since 2020. He is also the chair of the Scientific Board of the Réseau Français des Instituts d’Études Avancées.
Lindiwe Dovey is Professor of Film and Screen Studies at SOAS University of London, where she has been on the faculty since 2007. From 2019-2024 she is Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies project, which has brought together an international team, partners and participants to try to make Screen Studies and the film industry more globally representative and equitable by centring African filmmaking, and through creative, scholarly, and activist work. Originally from South Africa, Lindiwe has authored two acclaimed books and many articles on African filmmaking, and also co-founded, and has directed and curated, two of the most important African film festivals in the UK: Film Africa and the Cambridge African Film Festival. She holds a BA in film production and theory from Harvard University, and a PhD in African film and literature from the University of Cambridge.
Black Girl/La Noire De (Ousmane Sembene, 1966)
Sambizanga (Sarah Maldoror, 1972)
Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958)
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