Mis Me Binga 2012: The International Women’s Film Festival

The Third International Women’s Film Festival Mis Me Binga will be held from 7 to 11 March 2012.

Created in 2010 at the initiative of the GIC Video Star, the International Women’s Film Festival Mis Me Binga aims to bring together films made by women, both intellectual and popular themes. The first two editions were held at the Goethe-Institut Kamerun and the French Cultural Center of Yaounde (now the French Institute).

Traditionally held in March during the week of International Women's Day, the Festival is broadly based on the theme "From Women’s Perspectives", drawing from diverse genres. Far from outdated romantic and overused clichés, the selection of films provides an open window on the world and the filmmakers whose works are too often absent from commercial channels, or in the case of Thérèse Sita Bella, who made the film TAM TAM à Paris in 1963, has been completely erased from the cinematic landscape.

Each year, Mis Me Binga offers the viewer a discovery of politically committed and challenging films. With a panorama of over 250 films, this third edition is no exception. Cameroon, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ghana, France, Japan, Germany, Quebec, the selection of films introduces one to far-away places, different cultures, and life stories that, despite the distance, deal with various themes from a universal perspective.

This year the festival is held under the theme: "WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES: Traditionally, women have been at the center of everything. She has been called variously: the mother of mankind, the engine of the family, the interior minister, etc. But paradoxically, she continues to be the victim of violence, discrimination, and marginalisation.

At a time when the world is facing a dramatic economic crisis, the woman, which some describe as the weaker sex, is acknowledged as being the driving force of the economy of most of our African countries, and of Cameroon in particular. She is the strength and the backbone of our economy, as well as the guardian of our future. Thus the theme of this third edition of the International Women’s Film Festival, called Mis Me Binga, again is fully part of current events.

Meetings, debates, events, exhibitions are the ingredients that will drive this 3rd edition of Mis Me Binga. During the four-day festival, thirty feature and short films will be screened at the French Institute of Yaounde and the Goethe-Institut Kamerun, and possibly, with the support of Cinéma Numérique Ambulant (traveling cinema) in outdoor locations in diverse and populous neighborhoods of Yaounde. The events will be attended by several directors, many women’s associations, and film enthusiasts from within the country and also from abroad.

Alongside institutional audiovisual stakeholders, anonymous or known, Mis Me Binga adds its modest contribution, offering for the third consecutive year, a film festival dedicated to women, and working for gender equality and the advancement of women.

EN FRANÇAIS