"She is fearless": Ama Ata Aidoo, renowned author and feminist has joined the ancestors

Ama Ata Aidoo, renowned author and feminist has joined the ancestors

...As a writer she is fearless. She’s a poet, short story writer, playwright, novelist and essayist. Her voice is humorous yet searing and she’s one of the first African writers to explore African women’s sexuality. I also admire Ama Ata Aidoo’s courage in tackling themes many African writers avoid: the impact of the slave trade on the relationship between Africa and its Diaspora – a thorny, sensitive theme that reminds us of the cataclysmic betrayal by African leaders of their people.

Ama Ata Aidoo is a writer with a difference: an artist prepared to dip her toes in the turbulent waters of ‘revolutionary’ change to serve her country as Minister of Education. The idea that creativity can be used as a force to lambast, expose and fight corruption and authoritarianism, as well as instigate change through action, is a form of creativity that is fascinating.

Yaba Badoe, director and co-producer of The Art of Ata Ama Aidoo (2014).

The documentary was directed and produced by Yaba Badoe and co-produced by Amina Mama.

UNESCO-Nara: Projection/Screening 4 films by young African women filmmakers | de jeunes réalisatrices africaines

UNESCO-Nara: Projection/Screening

4 films by young African women filmmakers | de jeunes réalisatrices africaines

Résidence cinématographique UNESCO-Nara : Projection de quatre films de jeunes réalisatrices africaines

UNESCO-Nara Film Residency: Screening of four films by young African women filmmakers

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-nara-film-residency-screening-four-films-young-african-women-filmmakers

Location
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France

7 June | juin 2023 - 6:45 pm - 7 June 2023 - 7:30 pm

Projection des courts métrages | Screening of short films

• Joan Kiragu: The Herbalist | L’Herboriste
• Awa Gueye: Saaraba
• Lydia Matata: A Conversation Between Two Artists | Une conversation entre deux artistes
• Fama Reyane Sow: Finding Peace | Trouver la paix  

Meet \ Rencontre - Deborah Lukumuena, réalisatrice \ director of \ de “Championne” - ARTE.TV

Deborah Lukumuena: “Championne” (Champion)

Rencontre avec Deborah Lukumuena, réalisatrice de “Championne” - ARTE.TV

Meet Deborah Lukumuena,  director of  “Championne” - ARTE.TV

En français: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/115232-000-A/rencontre-avec-deborah-lukumuena/

Cesar Laureate in 2017 for best female interpretation in a second role in Divines, passes behind the camera for her first film, the short entitled Championne

Translated from French by Beti Ellerson

I am making films because there are certain things that I need to do and see, there is a need for me to be heard in another way. Even if I have already shown it in roles that I have interpreted. To begin with Championne is a way to…it is cathartic. ‘Okay, you have carte blanche, what are you going to say?’  It’s true that the adaptation of Championne is very specific, I follow a YouTubere called Femme ébène (Ebony woman). And one day there is a video called Prise d’otages, (hostage taking), that I discover. She works at tacos and encounters an odd Uber Eats delivery woman who is as it turns out rather wealthy. They begin to talk and the delivery woman tells her that she is an escort-dominatrix.  She discovers a social milieu that she did not know existed.

My film does not endorse but rather is a testimony of a raised consciousness of my and the upcoming generation that the sexuality and all that is related to sex work has become an exchange currency and not necessarily in a manner of victimhood. The technical crew is composed principally of women for several reasons. To already respond to these weighty issues regarding gender parity, but above all for questions of comfort. I had actresses who are crawling in sexualized clothing. I wanted them to be overprotected and shielded within an empathetic gaze. It was very important that the people feel concerned, with their sensitivity, their own difficulties, their lived-experience, they could bring even more to the creation. All of which creates a safe place [said in English] for creativity and for intimacy. 

There is a political issue in the film which is to show what is not habitually seen, this kind of sexuality and these non-normative, atypical bodies. Not only are these bodies not habitually seen, but to film them as such, to give them sexual and sensual value. A lot of people say to me: ‘It is great to be filmed in this way.’ For me it made sense that in the middle of these things outside of the norm, this body inscribes itself. I don’t know if I will direct films on the longterm, but if I do it will be to show what I don’t see. And I don’t see these kinds of bodies, I don’t see them filmed in this way, I don’t see them on the screens.  

Cannes 2023 : African Women at Cannes | La présence africaine au féminin

Cannes 2023
African Women at Cannes | La présence africaine au féminin

JURYS 

Longs métrages | Features

Rungano Nyoni: Réalisatrice, Scénariste (Zambie)

Maryam Touzani: Scénariste, Réalisatrice (Maroc)

La Cinef et Courts métrages | Shorts

Karidja Touré: Actrice (France)

SELECTION OFFICIELLE | OFFICIAL SELECTION

Competition Longs-métrages | Features

Ramata-Toulaye Sy: Banel & Adama (Sénégal - 2023 - 87min)

https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/banel-e-adama/

Kaouther Ben Hania: Les filles d’Olfa (Tunisia - 2023 - 107min)

PRIX: Oeil d'Or ex-aequo

https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/les-filles-d-olfa/

Un certain regard

Asmae El Moudir: Kadib Abyad | La Mère de tous les mensonges | Mother of All Lies (Morocco - 2023 - 96min)

PRIX: Oeil d'Or ex-aequo

https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/kadib-abyad/

La Cinef

Zineb Wakrim: Ayyur | Moon (Morocco - 2022- 13min)

PRIX: 3rd Prix de la Cinef 2023

https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/ayyur/ 

QUINZAINE DES CINEASTES | DIRECTOR'S FORTNIGHT

Rosine Mbakam: Mambar Pierrette (Cameroun, Belgique - 2023 -  93 minutes)

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/05/rosine-mbakam-mambar-pierrette-cannes-quinzaine.html

LES CINEMAS DU MONDE: LA FABRIQUE

Dora Bouchoucha (Tunisia) Marraine de La Fabrique Cinéma 2023 de l'Institut français

En 2023, Dora Bouchoucha, marraine de la Fabrique, accompagnera à son tour 10 réalisatrices et réalisateurs dans le développement de leur premier ou second long métrage.

https://www.lescinemasdumonde.com/fr/la-fabrique/2023/patroness

Nada Riyadh: Moonblind (Egypt)

Moonblind est l'histoire d’une liberté naissante : celle du corps, de l'assignation sexuelle et de la reproduction de la violence. L'histoire nous emmène hors de la civilisation, loin de la ville, pour une immersion au plus profond de l’être, après une expérience traumatique. Après avoir été agressée sexuellement, Badr, la jeune protagoniste, vit un nouveau cauchemar. Pour faire face aux schémas d'attachement malsains qu'ils ont connus dans leur enfance, les survivants d'abus sexuels se retrouvent souvent, à l'adolescence, dans des situations similaires qui leur sont familières. Ils recréent leurs pires cauchemars. Moonblind est une étude viscérale des sujets difficiles que sont les agressions sexuelles, le souvenir traumatique et les relations parents-enfants. Le film pose la question suivante : est-il possible de trouver la rédemption après un passé marqué par la violence ?

https://www.lescinemasdumonde.com/fr/la-fabrique/2023/projet/moonblind

Charlie Kouka: Le Procès de Leïla (Tunisia)

Le Procès de Leïla est une histoire qui me tient beaucoup à cœur car elle me renvoie au milieu duquel je viens. J’ai grandi à Sidi Bouzid, une petite ville au centre de la Tunisie, cette ville qui a vu naitre la révolution de 2011, mais qui, comme beaucoup d’autres villes d’ailleurs, a été délaissée par les autorités pendant des années. Par conséquent, la marginalité y est devenue la norme et la foi religieuse a pris une grande place dans la vie des gens.

Lorsque j’ai entendu dire que l’Islam était en train de vivre sa période moyenâgeuse, l’image m’a marquée, et la figure de Jeanne d’Arc s’est immédiatement imposée à moi. Que serait la vie de Jeanne d’Arc si elle vivait à notre époque et surtout, si elle était de confession musulmane ? Ainsi est née l’histoire de Leïla. Cette fille qui va prendre la religion pour alliée afin de s’émanciper. 

https://www.lescinemasdumonde.com/fr/la-fabrique/2023/projet/le-proces-de-leila

PARALLEL EVENTS

BFI partners with Diversity in Cannes to celebrate Black women filmmakers during the Cannes Film Festival

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/05/bfi-partners-with-diversity-in-cannes.html

AFRICA DAY - MENTORSHIP PROGRAM ProjectZ.Africa:
Tsitsi Dangarembga - Novelist, Playwright and Filmmaker
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/05/tsitsi-dangarembga-mentorship-marche-cannes.html 

Tsitsi Dangarembga - Novelist, Playwright and Filmmaker - Mentorship Program - Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes

AFRICA DAY - MENTORSHIP PROGRAM ProjectZ.Africa:

Tsitsi Dangarembga - Novelist, Playwright and Filmmaker

THURSDAY 25 May , 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes

Village International - Pantiero - Pavilion no. 215

Project Z.Africa brings international skills to African filmmakers through mentoring with international industry insiders. Mentees who have been paired with international industry talent are contracted to work on its productions. It’s the brainchild of the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa together with Nyerai Films Plc and the International Images Film Festival for Women.

BFI partners with Diversity in Cannes to celebrate Black women filmmakers during the Cannes Film Festival

BFI partners with Diversity in Cannes to celebrate Black women filmmakers during the Cannes Film Festival

ANNOUNCEMENT

Image: BFI

A delegation of UK filmmakers will be attending the festival to focus on growing international networks and building new creative and financial partnerships.

17 May 2023
Yvonne Ibazebo, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Kelley Robins Hicks and Shantelle Rochester
We’re partnering with Diversity in Cannes to present Celebrating Black Women in International Film, a curated programme of events and networking opportunities to build meaningful creative and financial partnerships. As part of the programme, a delegation of four UK Black female filmmakers, who are actively seeking partners for current projects, will go to the Cannes Film Festival to connect with their international peers.

With only one Black female director to have ever qualified for competition in Cannes until this year, the BFI with Diversity in Cannes is creating space for Black women filmmakers to challenge narratives and barriers that see them persistently underrepresented in the industry. The cohort of UK filmmakers travelling to the festival as part of the programme are Yvonne Ibazebo, Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Kelley Robins Hicks and Shantelle Rochester.

With additional support from the British Blacklist and Times Up UK, the programme includes two days of events, which will see Black filmmakers talk through their experiences, achievements and perspectives. Events will explore what it is to be a filmmaker from a historically marginalised background, to interrogate the importance and value of authentic authorship and how our experiences bring richness to stories.

“After an overwhelmingly positive response to a very informal coming together of Black female talent at last year’s festival, it became clear how rare opportunities to celebrate female filmmakers of colour are. It has been a pleasure to shape this programme with our partner Diversity in Cannes, supported by the British Blacklist and Times Up UK; organisations who have been championing historically marginalised communities for so many years. We hope the events, coupled with supporting a group of UK filmmakers to travel to Cannes, offers a chance for international Black female filmmakers to develop creative pathways that serve their own voice and artistic practices, while operating in a structures that often presents them with barriers. ”Melanie Hoyes, head of inclusion at the BFI

“Black women directors have been grossly underrepresented and have gone unrecognised at the Cannes Film Festival since inception. In 76 years, there's been only two in competition, Mati Diop in 2019 and Ramata-Toulaye Sy this year. While I celebrate and uplift Sy, the Cannes Film Festival still has work to do. However, I have zero interest in fighting the patriarchy, as you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. Instead, I will use the Diversity in Cannes platform to honour global black women in film at the Cannes Film Festival, indefinitely, and I’m excited to partner with Melanie Hoyes and the BFI to amplify their voices. ”Yolonda Brinkley, founder of Diversity in Cannes

ANNOUNCEMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY WITH PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/bfi-diversity-cannes-black-women-filmmakers

Cannes 2023. Ramata-Toulaye Sy: Banel & Adama

Cannes 2023

Ramata-Toulaye Sy

Banel & Adama

En Compétition - Longs Métrages -1er Film

Sénégal - 2023 - 87min

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young married couple lives in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists. Yet their perfect everlasting love is on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos

Banel et Adama s’aiment. Ils vivent dans un village éloigné au Nord du Sénégal. Du monde, ils ne connaissent que ça, en dehors, rien n’existe. Mais l’amour absolu qui les unit va se heurter aux conventions de la communauté. Car là où ils vivent, il n’y a pas de place pour les passions, et encore moins pour le chaos.