Cannes 2015 : Rokia Traore, la voix africaine du jury | the African voix of the jury

Rokia Traore sur les marches à Cannes  | on the steps at Cannes
© BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP

Cannes 2015 : Rokia Traore, la voix africaine du jury | the African voix of the jury

Source: culturebox.francetvinfo.fr. 18-05-2015

Photo: Rokia Traore sur les marches à Cannes  | on the steps at Cannes © BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP

Reportage à Cannes | Report from Cannes: N.Hayter, N.Berthier, C.Beauvalet

À LIRE AUSSI : RENCONTRE - Rokia Traoré « Un silence peut dire beaucoup dans un film» - Festival de Cannes 2015 (Festival International du Film)

READ ALSO: INTERVIEW - Rokia Traoré "In a film, silence can convey many things" Festival de Cannes 2015 (Festival International du Film)

[English]

Composed of professionals of cinema, the Cannes jury is rarely comprised of singers. With Rokia Traoré, the 68th edition is an interesting exception. The brilliant Malian musician is elated to be part of this rich experience, treating herself to a delightful digression.

Under the American presidency of the Coen brothers, Rokia joins Xavier Dolan, Sienna Miller, Guillermo del Toro, Sophie Marceau, Rossy de Palma et Jake Gyllenhaal, ascending the world famous stairs almost everyday right up until the awarding of the Palm d’Or. But the extravagance and beautiful gowns do not go to her head. “To ascend the red carpet, it’s a great experience, but I also need to have a very simple life,” she stated to France3.

LIRE L’ARTICLE EN FRANCAIS: http://m.culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/festival-de-cannes/cannes-2015-rokia-traore-la-voix-africaine-du-jury-219619

TEXT OF TRANSLATION FROM OF REPORTAGE À CANNES BELOW

[Translation of narration: Reportage à Cannes | Report from Cannes - https://fresques.ina.fr/festival-de-cannes-fr/fiche-media/Cannes00707/rokia-traore-membre-du-jury.html]

Narrator: A few weeks ago Rokia Traore would never have thought she would be in Cannes in the month of May. The Cote d’Azur she knows well, but this time she is not touring. When she was invited by the Cannes Festival to be part of its prestigious jury she said yes, with much delight.

Rokia Traoré: In general I like artistic expressions, whether through sound, movement, image, they tell us a story. Going to the movie theatre is like going to see an exhibition.

Narrator: And beyond the cinema-- there are the festivities. As a jury member Rokia Traoré ascends the prestigious red-carpeted stairs almost daily and attends as many gatherings. Hence, gowns are indispensable. One for each day, different forms and colours, to try them on is a great pleasure.

Rokia Traoré: This has the form of the boubou, I like this side of it.

Wardrobe coordinator: As soon as I saw Rokia Touré I knew it would be pastel and light colours, I stay away from beige and greige.

Narrator: Caution, this extravagance will not go to Rokia Touré’s head.

Rokia Traoré: To ascend the red carpet, it’s a great experience, but I also need to have a very simple life.

Narrator voice off with image of Rokia Traoré): For instance, to stroll along the shore of the Niger, a few kilometres from Bamako. She will return there after this enchanting pause, of twelve days immersed in the universe of the 7th art.

BeninDocs 2015: Call for films | Appel à film : Women confronting inequalities…Other perspectives | La femme à l'épreuve des inégalités…Autres Regards

BeninDocs 2015: Call for films | Appel à film : Women confronting inequalities…Other perspectives |  La femme à l'épreuve des inégalités…Autres Regards

Formulaire de candidature | Registration form (in French) : http://www.africadocnetwork.com  Date limite | Deadline : 15-09-2015

[English]

The Africadoc-Benin Association launches a call for films for the third edition of BeninDocs - International Documentary Film Festival will be held from 18 to 25 November 2015 in the cities of Porto-Novo, Cotonou and Paris. This edition has the theme "WOMEN CONFRONTING INEQUALITY... OTHER PERSPECTIVES" and revisits the worldwide women’s rights struggles, while promoting the contemporary perspectives of young filmmakers.

Please register by downloading the form and regulations at: www.africadocnetwork.com; www.if-benin.com. Send a message to: africadoc.bn@gmail.com

[Français]

L'association Africadoc-Bénin lance l'appel à film de la troisième édition du BeninDocs - Festival International du Premier Film Documentaire qui va se tenir du 18 au 25 novembre 2015 dans les villes de Porto-Novo, Cotonou et Paris. Cette édition a pour thème "LA FEMME A L'EPREUVE DES INEGALITES…AUTRES REGARDS", et revisite les luttes d'émancipation de la femme dans le monde, tout en privilégiant le regard contemporain des jeunes réalisateurs et réalisatrices.

Merci d'inscrire vos films en téléchargeant le formulaire et le règlement sur : www.africadocnetwork.com ; www.if-benin.com. Envoyez un mail à africadoc.bn@gmail.com

Links | Liens

Farah Clémentine Dramani Issifou: the 2013 Africadoc Benin and Festival des Nouveaux Cinémas Documentaires (New Documentary Cinemas Festival)

Farah Clémentine Dramani Issifou : Africadoc Benin et le Festival des Nouveaux Cinémas Documentaires 2013

ARTE: Trop noire pour être française ? | Too black to be French? by/de Isabelle Boni-Claverie

ARTE: Trop noire pour être française ? | Too black to be French? 
by/de Isabelle Boni-Claverie

Un documentaire d’Isabelle Boni-Claverie | A documentary by Isabelle Boni-Claverie

Une coproduction : Arte France, Quark Productions (France 2015, 53 min).

Sur ARTE: Vendredi 3 juillet 2015 à 23:05 | On ARTE: Friday 3 July 2015 at 23h05

Source: arte.tv. Translation from French by Beti Ellerson

[English]

Filmmaker Isabelle Boni-Claverie, a black woman who grew up in a privileged environment, has none of the supposed social handicaps that could impede social integration. And yet, she is often an object of discrimination. Has the Republic lied to her? A brazen question illuminated by the analysis of Eric Fassin, Pap Ndiaye and Achille Mbembe regarding the inequalities of our society.

In 2010, offended by the racist comments of Jean-Paul Guerlain on the France 2 telejournal, Isabelle Boni-Claverie organised several demonstrations on the Champs Élysées, negotiated with the LVMH group and obtained a series of measures to promote diversity. However, this incident, which she documents in the film, left her with a bad taste. How is it that today, in France, this is still happening? In response to this question, using a first-person approach, the filmmaker leads an investigation.

She invokes the model story of her grandparents, an interracial couple of the 1930s. Reflecting on her upper-middle-class childhood, she probes the relationship between class and race. Not without humour, in the manner of: “You know you are black when…”, she asks would-be interlocutors to testify before the camera about the exasperations that they experience. Both personal and collective, the film does not hesitate to call existing policies into question.

[Français]

La réalisatrice Isabelle Boni-Claverie est noire. Elle a grandi dans un milieu privilégié et ne présente aucun des handicaps sociaux supposés freiner son intégration. Pourtant, elle est régulièrement victime de discriminations. La République lui aurait-elle menti ? Une réflexion impertinente éclairée par les analyses d’Eric Fassin, Pap Ndiaye et Achille Mbembe sur les inégalités de notre société.

En 2010, indignée par les propos racistes de Jean-Paul Guerlain au JT de France 2, Isabelle Boni-Claverie monte plusieurs manifestations sur les Champs-Élysées, négocie avec le groupe LVMH et obtient une série de mesures en faveur de la diversité. Cet épisode, qu’elle documente dans le film, lui laisse cependant un goût amer. Comment se fait-il qu’aujourd’hui, en France, on en soit encore là ? Pour répondre à ces questions, la réalisatrice mène une enquête à la première personne.

Elle convoque l’histoire exemplaire du couple mixte formé par ses grands-parents dans les années 30. Elle revient sur son enfance dans la haute bourgeoisie et interroge le rapport entre classe et race. Non sans humour, elle demande à des anonymes de venir témoigner devant la caméra des vexations qu’ils subissent, sur le mode « Tu sais que tu es noir(e) quand... ». Un film à la fois intimiste et sociétal qui n’hésite pas à remettre en cause les politiques en place.

Teaser: in French | En français

Links | Links

Entretien avec Isabelle Boni-Claverie

A Conversation with Isabelle Boni-Claverie

Sudanese Marwa Zein launches the Indiegogo crowdfunding for film project "One Week, Two Days"

Photo: Marwa Zein Website

Marwa Zein launches Indiegogo crowdfunding for the film project "One Week, Two Days"

For more information on the Indiegogo campaign and to make a contribution: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/one-week-two-days-short-film 

Marwa Zein had this to say to Beti Ellerson about the film project "One Week, Two Days". 

Relationships, people, fear, time. Is time against love? Our film is about love, time, sharing, communication and anxiety. A film that spans a nine-day period and what may happen to any couple during that time. A film about different points of view that are not discussed because it happens all the time. 

Love scenes are hard to make, and going through intimate details between a man and a woman is very difficult. And what is even more difficult is to find someone who is willing to finance it, especially when it's a short film. But it is not difficult to find people who are interested and willing to help us make the movie. We are proud that almost half of the crew are women. And we are happy that the other half are men: in order to oppress them! We are happy to work together on a film that could be about any couple anywhere in the world. 

About Marwa Zein

Sudanese filmmaker and scriptwriter Marwa Zein was born in Saudi Arabia and lived in Cairo, Egypt. After studying chemical engineering for three years, she decided to pursue her passion for film at the High Institute of Cinema in Cairo, graduating with an honorable mention in 2009.

From 2009 to 2014, Marwa Zein has honed her filmmaking skills at diverse talent campuses, master classes and film workshops: Berlin Talent Campus, Durban Talent Campus, film workshops conducted by Haile Gerima at the Luxor African Film Festival and the Silver Docs AFI Documentary workshop, and international master classes with Tom Tykwer, Jihan El Tahri, Threes Ann and Darine Hotait.

Her film Layl, developed at the Cinephilia Screenwriting Lab for Shorts, received an honorable mention in 2014. Her short film A Game was selected at the 2010 Cannes Short film Corner and has won awards at many festivals including: Sao Paolo International Short Film Festival, Michigan Short Film Festival, Avignon International Short Film Festival, Qartaj Short Film Festival, Ismailia International Short Film Festival.

ADAPTED FROM INDIEGOGO CROWDFUNDING DESCRIPTION

Nine days between a loving couple from the Middle East, where intimacy and relationships are hard to discuss in real life and in films.

In a sarcastic yet romantic way, the film relates very small though important details that happen between a woman and a man; which is something relatively new to the Arab short film industry.

As filmmakers we are bound by market requirements and rules, and as Arab artists we are always hounded by constant censorship that thwarts our imagination and redefines our words.

         We want to make films based on our own desires: that are true, free and our own!

One Week, Two Days - Crowd Funding Campaign from Marwa Zein on Vimeo.

Link:

Marwa Zein Website 

The 2015 New York African Film Festival Honors Women!

The 2015

New York African Film Festival Honors Women!

Screenings for Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

4:00    100% DAKAR Sandra Krampelhuber, Austria/Senegal, 2014, 62min and THE PROPHECY Marcia Juzga, Senegal, 2015, 20min.

6:00   Women in the Media - Shorts Program #2

Introduction by MaameYaa Boafo and Nova Scott-James

THE SUMMER OF GODS
Eliciana Nascimento, Brazil, 2014, 20min; co-presented by Cinema Tropical

A young girl named Lili connects with her Afro-Brazilian religious heritage on a summer visit with family to their ancestral village in rural Brazil. During her stay, she encounters orishas (African gods) who help her find peace with a gift that had previously vexed her.

BURKINA, ALL ABOUT WOMEN 
Nicole Mackinlay Hahn, USA/Burkina Faso, 2015, 11min.
 

Seeking to undo stereotypes about African women by looking at the professional lives of women in Burkina Faso, the film talks to a firefighter, a swimmer, a mushroom biologist, a mechanic, an astrophysicist, a rapper, and more—allowing women (all inspired by the legendary Princess Yennenga) to give voice to their own unique experience.

HANDMADE IN THAMAGA 
Nova Scott-James, USA/Botswana, 2014, 5min.
 

Handmade in Thamaga chronicles the founding and work of Bothlalo Centre, a women’s pottery collective and business in the small rural village of Thamaga, Botswana.

BUS NUT
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/USA, 2014, 7min.
 

Bus Nut rearticulates the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest against U.S. racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, and its relationship to an educational video on school-bus safety. Actress MaameYaa Boafo restages a vintage video while reciting press-conference audio of Rosa Parks on a re-created set in New York City.

SISTER OYO (SOEUR OYO)
Monique Mbeka Phoba, Belgium/Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2014, 24min.
 

Set in the Belgian Congo in the 1950s, Sister Oyo tells the story of Godelive, a schoolgirl at the Catholic boarding school Mbanza-Mboma, the premier French-language school for Congolese girls. She is to be westernized, following the will of her parents, but the memory of her grandmother intervenes…

CHOLO
Muzna Almusafer, United Arab Emirates/France, 2014, 21min.
 

The dark-skinned 11-year-old Cholo meets his fair-skinned younger stepbrother Abdullah for the first time. Although strikingly different, the two boys enjoy a crackling chemistry.

PANIC BUTTON
Libby Dougherty, South Africa, 2014, 25min.
 

From the moment that Tshepo, a security guard, breaks through Jenny’s multi-locked door to save her, she feels as if she’s been swept off her feet. But as Jenny imagines herself falling in love with him, an unhealthy, delusional obsession begins to take shape.

9:00   MOSSANE Safi Faye, Senegal, 1996, 105min. 

Gaze Regimes: Film and Feminisms in Africa

Gaze Regimes: Film and Feminisms in Africa. Eds. Antje Schuhmann, Jyoti Mistry. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, 2015. 

An outcome of the ARTSWork Platform: Meeting of African Women Filmmakers Johannesburg, 2010 - See proceedings on African Women in Cinema Blog*

Book Description, Wits University Press:

Gaze Regimes is a bricolage of essays and interviews showcasing the experiences of women working in film, either directly as practitioners or in other areas such as curators, festival programme directors or fundraisers. It does not shy away from questioning the relations of power in the practice of filmmaking and the power invested in the gaze itself. Who is looking and who is being looked at, who is telling women’s stories in Africa and what governs the mechanics of making those films on the continent?

The interviews with film practitioners such as Tsitsi Dangarembga, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Jihan El-Tahri, Anita Khanna, Isabel Noronhe, Arya Lalloo and Shannon Walsh demonstrate the contradictory points of departure of women in film – from their understanding of feminisms in relation to lived-experiences and the realpolitik of women working as cultural practitioners.

The disciplines of gender studies, postcolonial theory, and film theory provide the framework for the book’s essays. Beti Ellerson, Jyoti Mistry, Antje Schuhmann, Nobunye Levin, Dorothee Wenner and Christina von Braun are some of the contributors who provide valuable context, analysis and insight into, among other things, the politics of representation, the role of film festivals and the collective and individual experiences of trauma and marginality which contribute to the layered and complex filmic responses of Africa’s film practitioners.

Foreword by Katharina von Ruckteschell, Goethe-Institut sub-Saharan Africa

Introduction: By Way of Context and Content
Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann

1 African Women in Cinema: An overview
Beti Ellerson

2 ‘I am a feminist only in secret’
Interview with Taghreed Elsanhouri and Christina von Braun by Ines Kappert

3 Staged Authenticity: Femininity in photography and film
Christina von Braun

4 ‘Power is in your own hands’: Why Jihan El-Tahri does not like movements
Interview with Jihan El-Tahri by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann

5 Aftermath – A focus on collective trauma
Interview with Djo Tunda wa Munga and Rumbi Katedza by Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry

6 Shooting Violence and Trauma: Traversing visual and social topographies in Zanele Muholi’s work
Antje Schuhmann

7 Puk Nini – A Filmic Instruction in Seduction: Exploring class and sexuality in gender relations
Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry

8 I am Saartjie Baartman
Nobunye Levin

9 Filmmaking at the Margins of a Community: On co-producing Elelwani
Jyoti Mistry

10 On Collective Practice and Collected Reflections
Interview with Shannon Walsh and Arya Lalloo by Jyoti Mistry

11 ‘Cinema of resistance’
Interview with Isabel Noronha by Max Annas and Henriette Gunkel

12 Dark and Personal
Anita Khanna

13 ‘Change? This might mean to shove a few men out’
Interview with Anita Khanna by Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry

14 Barakat! means Enough!
Katarina Hedrén

15 ‘Women, use the gaze to change reality’
Interview with Katarina Hedrén by Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry

16 Post-colonial Film Collaboration and Festival Politics
Dorothee Wenner

17 Tsitsi Dangarembga: A Manifesto
Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann

Acronyms and Abbreviations

List of Contributors

Filmography

Index

*Names of participants (in alphabetical order) :

Peace Anyiam-Osigwe (Nigeria), Seipati Bulani-Hopa (South Africa), Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), Taghreed Elsanhouri (Sudan), Jihan El-Tahri (France-Egypt), Beti Ellerson (USA), Hawa Essuman (Ghana-Kenya), Maria João Ganga (Angola), June Givanni (UK), Katarina Hedrén (Sweden-South Africa), Marie Ka (Senegal), Musola Catherine Kaseketi (Zambia), Rumbi Katedza (Zimbabwe), Jyoti Mistry (South Africa), M Beatrix Mugishagwe (Tanzania), Jane Murago-Munene (Kenya), Fanta Nacro (Burkina Faso), Maren Niemeyer (Goethe-Institut, Munich), Isabel Noronha (Mozambique), Monique Phoba (DRC-Belgium), Eve Rantseli (South Africa), Yewbdar Anbessie Setegn (Ethiopia), Arice Siapi (Cameroon), Dorothee Wenner (Germany), Debra Zimmerman (Women Make Movies, USA)

African Student Film Festival (ASFF) 2015 - 3rd Edition - Nigeria - Call for films | Appel à Films

AFRICAN STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL 2015 – 

3RD EDITION

7-9 October 2015 | 7-9 Octobre 2015

http://www.africanstudentfilmfestival.com
LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE

CALL FOR FILMS PRESS RELEASE |

COMMUNIQUE : APPEL À FILMS

Submission deadline | Date d'échéance

17 July 2013 | 17 juillet 2013

Download entry form |

Télécharger les règlements et formulaire d'inscription :

http://www.africanstudentfilmfestival.com/image/ENTRYFORM.pdf
LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE

[English]

The African Student Film Festival in Nigeria is an initiative born out of deep thoughts for the future of the beautiful continent of Africa, in order to promote and protect the cultural values.

African Student Film Festival is an annual Pan-African festival targeted at discovering, encouraging and rewarding African young filmmakers and helps them to get funds and grants. During six days of intensive training and workshops participants will learn from professionals how to master various filmmaking techniques.

During six days of intensive training and workshops on various filmmaking techniques participants will be coached by professionals in the field. 

Theme: "Beautiful Landscapes of Africa... See it through the Lens"

We want to see more exteriors and the Landscapes you have in your countries. Show us how best you can use your landscapes to tell a story. 

Venue: The most vibrant and energetic city in Nigeria is where the festival will be taking place. Lagos Nigeria is the city, the city of Stars.

[Français]

L’African Student Film Festival du Nigeria est une initiative née de nos réflexions sur l'avenir du beau continent de l'Afrique, afin de promouvoir et de protéger les valeurs culturelles.

L’African Student Film Festival est un festival panafricain annuel qui a pour objectif de découvrir, encourager et récompenser, les jeunes cinéastes africains et de les aider à obtenir des fonds et des subventions.

Pendant six jours de formation et d’ateliers de travail intensifs sur diverses techniques cinématographiques, les participants apprendront à travers les professionnels à maîtriser les diverses techniques du cinéma.

Thème: "Les beaux paysages de l'Afrique ... le regard à travers l’objectif"

Nous voulons voir les extérieurs et les paysages de vos pays. Montrez-nous comment vous pouvez utiliser vos paysages pour raconter une histoire.

Lieu: Le festival aura lieu dans la ville la plus dynamique et énergique du Nigeria: Lagos LA ville, la ville de Stars.

Link:

Adaobi Obiegbosi: Creating a Platform for Africa’s Student Filmmakers

Mzansi Women Film Festival 2015 - Call for submissions is now open - Johannesburg, South Africa

MZANSI WOMEN FILM FESTIVAL 2015 PRESS RELEASE

MZANSI WOMEN FILM FESTIVAL

7-8-9 August 2015

Johannesburg, South Africa

MWFF 2014 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS IS NOW OPEN

Any genre + duration for consideration

Films by Women Directors/ Producers/Editors/DOPs/Writers/Women in lead roles

Send your DVD screeners to Ntokozo Mahlalela, Mwanzi Women Film Festival, 53 Von Brandis Street, Turffontein 2190, Johannesburg, South Africa

"I love to see young girls go out and grab the world by the lapel. Life is a bitch so you’ve got to go and kick ass" Maya Angelou

Background

Mzansi Women Film Festival was founded in 2014 in collaboration with The Constitution Hill and 75 Films. It is a film festival that celebrates women filmmakers of South Africa, Africa and the World thus to encourage spirit of engagement, collaboration, co-create for a better and screen films about women and by women filmmakers. The festival is hosted at The Constitution Hill due to the heritage’s site history as it was once a Prison for Women thus honoring and celebration the spirit of the women who came before by watering the grounds many women walk on today. All films screened were 100% South African from independent women filmmakers and Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking School in Johannesburg. The festival was greatly supported by Gauteng Film Commission.

Year 2015 is the festival’s 2nd year running and will for the first time screen films by other women filmmakers from outside South Africa , it will take place at The Constitution Hill on 7-8-9 August 2015 and for the first time have out-reach screenings ,workshops in and around Johannesburg. The 2015 edition of the festival is in partnership between The Constitution Hill, Destiny Ventures Events, 75 Films, Gracefully Consulting and other institutions within the film industry.

Contacts:

Ntokozo Mahlalela for 75 Films :

072 635 0622 : mzansiwomenfestival@gmail.com

Bontle Mokoka for Constitution Hill :

011 381 3100 / 081 330 9519 : b.mokoka@constitutionhill.org.za

The mothers of Maïmouna Doucouré | Les mamans de Maïmouna Doucouré. A review/une critique by/par Claire Diao

The mothers of Maïmouna Doucouré | Les mamans de Maïmouna Doucouré. A review/une critique by/par CLAIRE DIAO

SOURCE: Bondy Blog en partenariat avec Libération | in partnership with Libération by/par CLAIRE DIAO (30/04/2015). Translated from French by Beti Ellerson

http://www.bondyblog.fr/201501281100/les-mamans-de-maimouna-doucoure/#.V7FGXulh0y4

du Comedy Cl

Cliquez ici pour lire l'article en version originale publié le 30 avril 2015 sur Bondy Blog en partenariat avec Libération

TALENTS EN COURT (Talents in Short). With her second short film Maman(s), 30-year-old Maïmouna Doucouré discusses the upheaval of polygamy through the eyes of a child.

After the premiere of her short film Maman(s) at the UGC Ciné Cité 19 in Paris, she glows, having gathered nearly 300 viewers and amassed as many reactions. Maman(s) was presented within the framework of Talents en Court initiated by the CNC and the association Friends of the of the Comedy Club. With the film Maimouna Doucouré knew she was confronting a taboo subject: polygamy, out of which she was "born" and by which she was inspired. "For me it's a film about love, and how a little girl interprets this love through her parents."

Although tolerated in some countries and prohibited in France, Maimouna Doucouré testifies that all around her this is a “common” practice, leaving more scars than one may imagine: "some of my friends have been damaged by polygamy because the children are not at all considered. Until one day it shows in their grades or they begin to act out. There is a real problem of communication in many families."

Born in Paris in 1985 of Senegalese parents, her mother, a shopkeeper and her father, a garbage collector, Maimouna Doucouré experienced a "beautiful" childhood full of "laughter and adventure". In the middle of a family of ten children, she is the fifth. She qualifies the 19th district of Paris where she grew up, as a true "melting pot", oscillating between "stressfulness and kindness."

A good student, "I was lucky to have parents who put a great emphasis on education even if they themselves did not go to school". Maimouna Doucouré took acting classes given by an organisation; then she wanted to follow an S academic track. "Are you crazy? It's too hard!" say her friends and career counsellors. "Since then, the more I am told that something is impossible, the more I go towards it," having obtained the baccalauréat in the subject matter she desired.

Though she earned a degree in Biology from the University of Paris 6, Maimouna Doucouré realised that something was missing. The need to express herself: "I have always thought that ‘perhaps one day’... I knew that the things within me had to come out." Ever since childhood, with her older brothers, she consumed films, on television or VHS: "Scarface, The Godfather, Boyz N the Hood, Freddy... It is with them that I discovered cinema."

Determined not to miss out on her calling, Maimouna Doucouré worked to absorb her experiences at the Laboratoire de l’Acteur (Laboratory for the Actor) in the 11th district of Paris (350 € per month!) where she trained in acting. Then by chance she learns about a call for applications at the HLM sur Court(t) Festival. In two days, the text is written and sent. Some time later, the phone rings. Winner. "I told myself, this is a sign. Then I asked myself: how is a film made?".

After calling friends and searching for information on the Internet, Maimouna Doucouré manages from A to Zed the shooting of Cache-cache (Hide and Seek) a short film with ten children, which won the third prize at the HLM sur Court(t) Festival and Special Mention from the Jury at the Generation Court d’Aubervilliers.

During another festival, she met the Bordeaux-based director and producer Zangro who offered to produce her next short film. "He encouraged me a lot. With him I realized that it is when you think your script is finished that the work begins." Together, they amassed the support of CNC, France 3, TV7 Bordeaux and the Region Aquitaine to shoot Maman(s).

If this believer of unlimited possibilities appreciates In the Mood For Love, La séparation, Breaking the Waves, Incendies, Les 400 coups, Amélie Poulain or Welcome, the representation of the minority populations in French cinema seems to be lagging behind. "In films, black people still play the roles of nannies, maids... And outside of cinema, they are still doing advertisements for condoms, AIDS... As if we did not eat yogurt. If all minority groups one day stopped being consumers, people would realise that they do exist."

So, to make films, not "films of the..." Maimouna Doucouré aspires to make films "that are thought provoking," with actors "beyond stereotypes", that in France one day it is possible to "make things happen and create that which does not exist".

Crédit photo : Julia Cordonnier pour Les ami(e)s du Comedy Club