The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Pan-African Women’s Day

 The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Pan-African Women’s Day

Image: African Union

The Restored "Kaddu Beykat" by Safi Faye premieres at the 79th Locarno Film Festival

The Restored Kaddu Beykat by Safi Faye premieres at the 79th Locarno Film Festival

 

Image: © Arsenal Filminstitut e.V. Locarnofestival.ch
 

Read the article by Srikanth Srinivasan, "It Takes a Village: On the Restored Kaddu Beykat by Senegalese Pioneer Safi Faye" at https://www.locarnofestival.ch/news/2026/pardo/it-takes-a-village-on-the-restored-kaddu-beykat-by-senegalese-pioneer-safi-faye.html
 

Kaddu Beykat (Letter from My Village) was restored by Cinegrell, in partnership with Locarno Heritage. The restoration will premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival.

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates the Nations Unies | United Nations Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine | International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent

Nations Unies | United Nations :

Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine 

 International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent 

 

Journée internationale des femmes et des filles d'ascendance africaine

Les femmes et les filles d'ascendance africaine continuent de faire face à de multiples formes de discrimination.

Accès limité à l'éducation et aux soins de santé de qualité, sous-représentation dans les sphères politiques et professionnelles : elles se heurtent trop souvent à des obstacles systémiques qui compromettent leur bien-être et fragilisent leurs droits.

Malgré ces défis, elles continuent de s'élever : à la tête de mouvements sociaux, brillant dans leurs études et leur carrière, luttant pour la justice, brisant les cycles de pauvreté et d'exclusion.

 

International Day of Women and Girls of African Descent 

Women and girls of African descent continue to face multiple forms of barriers and discriminations.

Despite these challenges, they continue to rise—leading movements, excelling in academics and careers, advocating for justice, and breaking generational cycles of poverty and exclusion.

Greater efforts are needed to support and empower them.

International Widows Day | Journée internationale des veuves (23/06) : Mary-Noël Niba - Le dos de la veuve | The back of the Widow

The commemoration of the International Day of the Widow, 23 June | La célébration de Journée internationale des veuves, 23 juin

[English]

The commemoration of the International Day of the Widow, 23 June, provides the opportunity to highlight the numerous difficulties that women endure at the death of their husbands. Plunged into a state of mourning, widows sometimes find themselves without the protection of a social net for the first time since their marriage. Too often they are deprived of their inheritance, property rights, access to employment and even the means to ensure their survival.

[Français]

La célébration de Journée internationale des veuves, le 23 juin, offre l’occasion d’attirer l’attention sur les nombreuses difficultés que connaissent les femmes lorsque leur mari meurt.  Plongées dans le chagrin, les veuves se retrouvent parfois sans filet de protection sociale pour la première fois depuis leur mariage.  Trop souvent, elles sont privées du droit d’hériter, de droits fonciers, de l’accès à l’emploi et même des moyens d’assurer leur survie.

Source: Critique de/by Maturin Petsoko. Journal du Cameroun

[English]
When asked what was the underlying motivation that led her to make such a work, Mary-Noël Niba responded: I want to be the voice of the voiceless. This is the feeling that drove me when I decided to make this documentary; to discover the basis of the tradition of succession among the Koms and their impact on society. Based on a woman's story, I wanted to put under the spotlight, the courage of some of the victims of a form of enslavement of women in the name of tradition; to highlight the women who decided to rebel despite the threats, and to raise their heads as they face the magnitude of the phenomenon

A la question de savoir quelles sont les motivations profondes qui ont poussé l’auteure à réaliser une telle œuvre, Mary-Noël NIBA déclare : Je voudrais être la voix des sans voix. C’est le sentiment qui m’anime lorsque je me décide à faire ce documentaire qui a pour but de faire découvrir les fondements de la tradition de succession chez les Koms et leurs conséquences sur la société. A travers l’histoire d’une femme, je voudrais mettre sous les feux des projecteurs, le courage de quelques victimes d’une forme d’asservissement de la femme au nom de la tradition, des femmes qui ont décidé de se révolter malgré les menaces, de lever la tête devant l’ampleur du phénomène.

LINK | LIEN

"Le dos de la veuve" (the back of the widow) by Cameroonian Mary-Noël Niba, critique by Maturin Petsoko

http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/05/le-dos-de-la-veuve-back-of-widow.html

«Le dos de la veuve», le documentaire engagé de la camerounaise Mary-Noël NIBA, critique par Maturin Petsoko

http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/05/le-dos-de-la-veuve-le-documentaire.html

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Refugee Day

 

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on 20 June and honours the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. 

Image: switchboardta.org

Focus on/sur “On Call” | “La Permanence” by/par  Alice Diop

[English]

This is a film about the pain of exile, but it is told through the contemplation of the faces of these men. What grabbed me when I started working on this subject were the images of these undifferentiated and anonymous masses who flock to our doors. While initially, this image was not negative in its intent, it produced something that can be experienced as threatening. For me it was important to put faces, to put names and specific stories on what is often treated as an all-encompassing problem.

[Français]

C’est un film qui raconte la douleur de l’exil, mais qui la raconte au travers de la contemplation du visage de ses hommes. Ce qui m’avait saisi quand j’avais commencé à travailler sur ce sujet, c’était les images de ces masses indifférenciées et anonymes qui affluaient à nos portes. Même si, à la base, cette image-là n’était pas négative dans son intention, elle produisait quelque chose qui peut être vécu comme menaçant. Pour moi, il était important d’aller mettre des visages, d’aller mettre des noms et des histoires singulières sur ce qui est très souvent traité comme étant un problème globalisant.

LINK | LIENS

Alice Diop : Addressing political issues through sensitivity and empathy | Les questions politiques par le biais de la sensibilité et de l’empathie

BLACK CAMERA - Black Women at the Louvre, Practices of Worldmaking, and the Rehabilitation of Disfigured Images: Reflections on Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2026)

 

Black Camera: An International Film Journal Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring 2026)

 

Black Women at the Louvre, Practices of Worldmaking, and the Rehabilitation of Disfigured Images: Reflections on Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus

by Beti Ellerson

 

https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00109

 

Image: Screen capture from Fragments of Venus  

 Abstract

This article navigates the journeys, voyages, odysseys of Black women’s creative power, as the Louvre becomes their point of inquiry. The article explores their practices of looking; how they reimagine ways of seeing, reinvent a world that centers their experiences. The Louvre becomes a metaphor, a space that allows world-making and self-making based on their terms. The Louvre is also a space of resistance and confrontation, as Black women crash the gatekeepers, by dismantling the structures that exclude and efface representations of the Other. The article examines as well, the ways that Black women reformulate practices of curating inside and outside the museum, creating exhibitions, cultural spaces, less foreign, more human, more welcoming. Faith Ringgold, Toni Morrison, Beyoncé, Barbara Chase-Riboud, and more recently Alice Diop, have journeyed there in their work, in their imaginary. Other women have excavated the museum from without, such as Robin Coste Lewis, in her poetry. The article follows their paths, crossings and peregrinations as they interrogate art, language, race, gender, class, the body, belonging, the foreigner.

Introduction
African American Women and the Louvre: A Site of Inquiry
- Faith Ringgold: Dancing at the Louvre
- Toni Morrison: Foreigner’s Home
- Beyoncé: I Can’t Believe We Made It
- Barbara Chase-Riboud: When a Knot Is Untied, a God Is Set Free
Louvre Grounds: An Enduring Space for Black Women’s Self-Making
In Search of Black Venuses
Alice Diop’s Journey 

African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Environment Day

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates

World Environment Day

 

The environment has long been a theme that African women in cinema have addressed in their work. Below is a selection of films promoting care for the environment and the inhabitants who depend on a safe and healthy world.

In Safi Faye's Kaddu Beykat (1975) the story unfolds through the backdrop of an ongoing drought in the village, causing economic upheaval as groundnuts are its sole crop. The recurring theme of drought drives the story in Fad'jal (1979), again underscoring the difficulty of cultivating the land. Similarly, in Mossane (1996) the drought continues to impose hardships on the village, and in hopes of rain, an elaborate ceremony is held calling on the ancestors to bring rain.

Kenyan Wanuri Kahiu was inspired by the late Nobel Prize laureate and compatriot Wangari Maathai, whose Greenbelt Movement challenged Africans to replenish the earth by planting trees, combatting deforestation and soil erosion. In her film Pumzi (2009) Aysha's last gesture was to plant a tree, sacrificing her own life for the continuation of the earth. Wanuri Kahiu has this to say about the importance of nurturing the environment: “My metaphor about Pumzi is life and sacrifice and that we ourselves have to mother mother nature. That we have to make sacrifices in order to live in this world. And that we have to know that our own behaviour will affect generations to come.” Wanuri Kahiu TEDx Forum On Afrofuturism In Popular Culture.

Marcher sur l'eau by Aissa Maiga filmed in northern Niger between 2018 and 2020, focuses on the village of Tatiste, a victim of global warming. In its fight for access to water, it is building a drilling hole. Every day, fourteen-year-old Houlaye as well as the other girls, of the village, walks kilometers to draw water, which is essential to the life of the village. In so doing they, they are prevented focusing on their studies. The absence of water drives the adults to leave their families every year in search of the necessary resources to survive. However, this region draws from an aquifer lake of several thousand square kilometers. Under the impetus of the inhabitants and through the action of the NGO Amman Imman, drilling would bring the requisite water to the center of the village, while offering a better life to all.

Silas by Hawa Essuman (Kenya) features Liberian activist, Silas Siakor, a tireless crusader, fighting to crush corruption and environmental destruction in the country he loves. Through the focus on one country, Silas is a global tale that warns of the power of politics and celebrates the power of individuals to fight back. One man's battle gains momentum and emboldens communities to raise their fists and smartphones, seize control of their lands and protect their environment. It is a new generation of resistance.

Anger in the Wind | La Colère dans le vent (2016) by Amina Weira (Niger). In Amina Weira’s hometown Arlit, in the north of Niger, the company Areva has operated uranium mines since 1976. Swept away by heavy sand winds, today, much of this area is contaminated. Radioactivity cannot be seen and the population is not aware of the risks that it engenders. This mining operation has completely disorganised the life of the population. A part of the year violent sand winds envelop the city entirely, during which dust winds spread radioactive substances and everyone looks for shelter. 

Julie Djikey: Performance "Ozonisation.” In the performance art work, "Ozonisation" (2013), Julie Djikey, as part of the Kisalu Nkia Mbote collective, performs in the streets of Kinshasa. The theme of the piece is in protest against pollution, global warming and the use of cosmetic products. She transforms her body into a “human car”, applying a mixture of engine oil and ashes from burnt tires, and a bra made from oil filter cans. This performance protests against the deterioration of the ozone layer due to the greenhouse gas emissions, the main chemo-physical element responsible for the overheating of the blue planet, which should always be green, without air pollution, and free of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Nadine Otsobogo, is the founding director of the Festival du Film de Masuku - Nature et environnement - Film Festival of Masuku - Nature and Environment in Gabon, an international festival, which, through the moving image, examines the place of humans in their environment in a global manner: biodiversity, environmental issues and urbanism. The festival welcomes all genres and formats, from  all cinematic forms, but devotes an important place to African cinemas. In addition, Nadine Otsobogo’s film Tout est lié - It’s all connected is about raising awareness among young audiences of the complexity of our terrestrial ecosystem and to inspire action by encouraging inventiveness and collaboration.

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Bicycle Day with Twiggy Matiwana's The Bicycle Man

Still from The Bicycle Man

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates

World Bicycle Day

with Twiggy Matiwana's the Bicycle Man

 

Twiggy Matiwana uses a simple image of a man on a bicycle, navigating around the city, as he works, does daily activities and chores, in order to tell a poignant story. While cycling conjures images of speed and resilience in sport, it is also a symbol of the everydayness of life, the veritable transportation of the people.

 

 

From a short conversation with Twiggy Matiwana

 

The Bicycle Man shows a sensitive side of the manner in which a man deals with what is generally viewed as a woman’s illness: breast cancer. Talk about why you chose this theme and decided to tell the story in this way.

Cinema is a great tool when it comes to telling a story. I had to make sure that I show those symbols with strong visuals and also not scare people, instead make them understand how things work and how to solve problems.

What have been the responses from the viewers? Men and women?

 

Both men and women still don’t believe that men can have breast cancer; the film has been an eye-opener for them. 

 

Cannes 2026 : African Women at Cannes | La présence africaine au féminin

Cannes 2026
African Women at Cannes | La présence africaine au féminin

Maîtresse de Cérémonie 

Eye Haïdera

JURYS 

Longs métrages | Features

Ruth Negga. Irlande, Éthiopie. Actrice & productrice

Un certain regard

Angèle Diabang. Sénégal. Réalisatrice & productrice 

SELECTION OFFICIELLE | OFFICIAL SELECTION

Un Certain regard

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo:  Ben’Imana - Caméra d'or

Also see: 

- Theodora et Oklou sur « Get Back » des Beatles à la Cérémonie d’Ouverture de Cannes 2026 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfz4AzwsfPc]

- African American Women In Cinema launch of the educational mini-tour "The Politics of Black Women in Film" at the Pavillon Afronova during the Cannes Film Festival.

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo lauréate de la Caméra d'or pour Ben’Imana (Un Certain regard) Festival de Cannes

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo lauréate de la Caméra d'or

pour Ben’Imana (Un Certain regard)

Festival de Cannes

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, lauréate de la Caméra d'or : "J’ai fait ce film parce que je voulais rendre hommage aux femmes de mon pays, ces mères qui sont à la racine de la guérison de toute une nation. Ces mères qui, à travers l'erreur et l'indicible, ont trouvé la force de rester debout avec dignité. Et plus encore, qui ont trouvé dans leur cœur la capacité de se donner, de pardonner et d'avancer, même imparfaitement, même douloureusement, même parfois sans y parvenir. Cette humanité-là, cette bravoure-là, mérite d'être levée."

 --- 

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, winner of the Caméra d’Or award : “I made this film because I wanted to pay tribute to the women of my country, those mothers who are at the root of an entire nation’s healing. Those mothers who, through error and the unspeakable, found the strength to remain standing with dignity. And beyond that, who found in their hearts the capacity to give of themselves, to forgive, and to move forward, even imperfectly, even painfully, even sometimes without succeeding. That humanity, that bravery, deserves to be uplifted. 

Source: Festival de Cannes

International Day to End Obstetric Fistula : Habiba by/de Sena Calmine Agbofoun (Benin)

 International Day to End Obstetric Fistula 

Habiba : a/un film by/de Sena Calmine Agbofoun (Benin) 

UNITED NATIONS: No woman or girl should have to endure obstetric fistula. The devastating condition, which is caused by complications during childbirth, results in pain, isolation and indignity – and yet is entirely preventable and treatable. This year's theme, “Her health, her right: Shaping a future without fistula,” underscores a powerful truth: that every woman and girl has the fundamental right to health—particularly sexual and reproductive health—and that the continued existence of obstetric fistula is a clear violation of that right. Ending fistula would improved maternal health and well-being overall and is essential to achieving universal health coverage. To build a future free of fistula, we must empower women and girls to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. High-quality, comprehensive care should be a right enjoyed by all—regardless of geography, income, or status. Effective and inclusive solutions must be grounded in the lived experiences of women, particularly those who have survived fistula. Their voices are essential in shaping policies and services that are rights-based and culturally sensitive. When community health workers, survivors, and informed leaders come together, they can challenge stigma, break down discriminatory norms, and spark real, lasting change. https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-fistula-day

[English]

A short conversation with Sena Calmine Agbofoun

Sena, talk a bit about your film and why you chose this topic.

Habiba is a short film that focuses on the problems stemming from obstetric fistula, which affects hundreds and hundreds of women in Africa and in my country, Benin. It is my cri de cœur demanding to stop demonizing the condition and offer assistance.

For this reason I decided to tell a true story of a woman who I met in 2014 who had contracted fistula and was healed. This is the motivation for the film Habiba.

You speak about the demonization of this condition. Why this attitude regarding this illness?

In fact, the condition is not recognised as an illness. It is regard instead as a curse resulting from a woman’s infidelity. Therefore, women with fistula are repudiated by their husbands, abandoned by their own family, and are forced to live in seclusion. 

[Français]

Une petite conversation avec Sena Calmine Agbofoun

Sena, parle un peu de ton film et pourquoi tu as choisi ce sujet. 

HABIBA est un court métrage sur la problématique de la fistule obstétricale qui condamne encore des centaines et des centaines de femmes en Afrique et chez moi au Bénin. C'est mon cri de cœur pour demander à ce qu'on arrête de diaboliser la maladie et qu'on vienne en aide.

Pour cela, j'ai décidé de raconter une histoire vraie, d'une femme fistuleuse guérie que j'ai rencontrée en 2014. Voilà d'où est parti HABIBA

Tu parles de la diabolisation de la fistule obstétricale, pourquoi cette attitude envers cette maladie ?

La maladie en fait, n'est pas reconnue comme étant une maladie. On l'assimile plutôt à une malédiction due à l'infidélité de la femme. Les femmes "fistuleuses" sont alors répudiées par leur mari, délaissées par leur propre famille, et sont obligées de vivre en recluse.

Synopsis

[English]

Habiba, a fourteen-year-old student with a bright future, is removed from school and force to marry an old man named Ambaliou. She endures a difficult pregnancy and an excruciating delivery. After which a terrible ordeal befalls upon her; she contracts obstetric fistula. Rejected by her family, Habiba takes refuge in the forest from which she is then taken away and sent to hospital. Ten years later, healed but living in seclusion, she finds the courage to tell her story, to give hope to the hundreds of women affected by this condition.

[Français]
Habiba, jeune fille de quatorze ans, avait l’avenir devant elle. Déscolarisée et mariée de force au vieux Ambaliou, elle connait une grossesse difficile et un accouchement pénible. Commence alors pour elle, un calvaire sans nom : la fistule obstétricale. Rejetée par sa famille et ses proches, Habiba se réfugie dans la forêt d’où elle sera tirée et envoyée à l’hôpital. Dix ans plus tard, guérie mais vivant en recluse, elle trouve pourtant le courage de raconter son histoire, pour redonner espoir aux centaines de femmes affectées par cette pathologie.

African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Mother's Day: Stories of Mothers

African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates Mother's Day 

African Women, Cinema and Stories of Mothers

Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, Mère-bi: the mother of all--a title which she carries with great aplomb. In addition to mothering her own children--after her divorce, doing so alone--she has mentored scores of Senegalese and African feminists and nurtured a generation of Senegalese film spectators who have taken on the role of cultural producer in the forging of a Senegalese cinema culture.

Sarah Maldoror: "I am one of those modern women who try to combine work and family life, and just like it is for all the others, it's a problem for me. Children need a home and a mother. That's why I try to prepare and edit my films in Paris during the long summer vacation when the children are free and can come along." *

In a tribute to her mother Sarah Maldoror, Henda Ducados had this to say: …It is also important to talk about Sarah as a woman, and talk about this great love story that she had with our father which led to the two projects, Sambizanga and Monangambee… her view about feminism, about being a single mother, female head of household, taking care of two daughters and making sure that the collectivity was very important. Not looking at the individual but at the collective…She always consider my sister and I as individuals. It was tough to deal with that as a child, but as an adult I appreciate that even more. Here we are, I am asked to talk about our mother… Our childhood was never easy but it was fun and unpredictable…People coming in and out of the house all of the time, good hearted strangers babysitting us while Sarah traveled the world. Later on during my history class at the university, I was astonished by the fact that most of the historical figures of the sixties stayed with us in our kitchen and ate with us. There were very few rules that I could remember, but one was to leave regrets/adversity at the door. So thank you Sarah for being so courageous, and passing this on to us, as you gave us the strength to face my fears and venture out and have an impact in this world…

Aïcha Macky begins and ends her film Fruitless Tree in dialogue with her mother: "Dearest Mama, while giving life, you lost yours.” She laments her own circumstance, “whereas I’m dying a slow death by not being able to give life." Nonetheless, she tells her mother that her steps are guided by her spirit. 

 There she was in the street coming towards me, weighed down with suitcases. And there, I said to myself: but who is she really, my mother? How did this woman build a life for herself between France and Senegal? And what is her story? Extract from La vie de ma mère by Maïram Guissé  

*(Interview with Elin Clason, cited in Women and Film No 5-6 1974). 

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Press Freedom Day : African Women Journalists' Critical Engagement with African Cinemas

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates World Press Freedom Day

African Women Journalists' Critical Engagement with African Cinemas

Image: Adapted from pooster of Mère-bi, a film by Ousmane William Mbaye

Declaration by UNESCO: 3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.

Senegalese Anne Mbaye d’Erneville studied journalism in Paris in the 1950s, returning to her country at the eve of independence to found a variety of cultural bodies among which include a cinema culture that has laid the foundation for contemporary cultural infrastructures. Her influences in cinema culture have spanned radio, print and television journalism and beyond. The emergence of the Dakar-based French-language women’s magazine, Awa, initially launched by Annette Mbaye d’Erneville in 1957 under the name Femmes de Soleil is an example of the early engagement of African women at the intersection of gender and culture. The first written works regarding African women in film were journalistic in nature, with photographs and short profiles of women television presenters and the first African actresses of the nascent African cinema. These reports published in 1966 and 1972 were included in the Senegal-based French-language women’s magazine Awa, la revue de la femme noire (1964-1973).

Moreover, Annette Mbaye d’Erneville was the director of RECIDAK, Rencontres cinématographiques de Dakar for many years. An annual film festival that she initiated in 1990 and with which she continues to have close ties. The 1996 edition of RECIDAK, Femmes et Cinéma (Women and Cinema) paid homage to African women. She was also a founding member of the Association Sénégalaise des Critiques de Cinéma (ASSECCI) created by filmmaker and critic Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and journalist Djib Diedhiou. Also one of the founders of the women’s movement in Senegal, Annette Mbaye d’Erneville’s pioneering feminist voice reverberates within diverse cultural milieux, notable cinema, where she has been a seminal figure in the development of the Senegalese public as cultural readers.

Cameroonian Thérèse Sita Bella (1933-2006), who held many functions as a journalist, is most widely known for Tam Tam à Paris, a 30-minute film that she directed in 1963; documenting the National Dance Company of Cameroon during its tour in the French capital. After the production of the film, while in France, Thérèse Sita Bella continued her work as journalist during which she participated in the creation of several African-focused cultural initiatives. She returned to Cameroon in 1967, working in various culture and cinema related positions.

Amina le magazine de la femme africaine et antillaise, also a French-language magazine, created in 1972, initially based in Dakar and later in Paris in 1975, has an early and present history of featuring profiles and interviews of filmmakers, actors, producers, stakeholders and other professionals in cinema. In its pages, Guinean editor-in-chief Assiatou Bah Diallo has played an important role in the promotion of women of the moving image.

Algerian Horria Saïhi is perhaps best known for her indefatigable work as journalist, reporter, and filmmaker against government censorship and religious fundamentalism. She was a 1995 laureate of the "Courage Award" presented by the International Women's Media Foundation.

Jihan El-Tahri worked for sometime as a journalist for many prominent news agencies but gradually found her interest in documentary filmmaking as a means to explore her subject more deeply. She had this to say about her move towards the documentary:
"I realized that as journalist we do not have the time to look into what is actually happening. We have deadlines everyday so you just skim the surface constantly and you don’t get to the bottom of what this is all about. And that is why I chose documentary.  Because documentary was about taking the time to look into a topic that is close to your heart and really looking at it in an angle that you choose. And doing the research and taking the time and formulating it in a way that is your own expression. Where as a journalist, there are so many constraints in terms of space, the number of words, when your editor wants it, who’s going to edit it back there. So this was not what I was looking for. What I was looking for was a mode of expression and that I obviously didn’t find in journalism."

 

Mauritanian journalist and director, Mariem mint Beyrouk, considered a pioneer in the field of visual media in her country, received her training in France, Tunisia and Syria after which she joined the newly-created Mauritanian television (TVM) in 1982. She founded the Association of Mauritanian Women of the Image in 2009, which brings together women in technical and artistic fields in the visual media. Several initiatives have been dedicated to showcasing women’s works, such as “Femmes et Cinéma en Mauritanie” (Women and Cinema in Mauritania) an event held in Nouakchott in 2011, highlighting films that focus on politics, the environment and social development. One of the main objectives of the Association is to raise women’s consciousness through the visual media, about health issues, women in general, mother-infant health, the excision of girls, marriage of adolescent girls, among other issues. In 2021 she was named Mauritania coordinator by the Caucus of Pan African Journalists. 

Already established as a journalist at the Parisen, in 2014 Maïram Guissé co-directed the documentary L’amour en cité, produced by Upian and broadcast on France 4. That was the turning point: she discovers a universe where she can tell stories in another way. In 2019,  she enrolled at Ateliers Varan with a focus on documentary filmmaking. She directed Quartiers d’été, which she then adapts for a podcasts series for Binge Audio. In 2022 she directed La vie de ma mère.

Throughout the continent and the diaspora, a cohort of women are actively engaged in film journalism following the footsteps of the trailblazing women who have come before them. The African Women in Cinema  Blog has featured several of these journalist activists: 

Hortense Assaga created the magazine Cité Black Paris, hosts several cultural programs and regularly reports on cultural events for Africa 24 and Canal+ Afrique. Togolese film critic Sitou Ayité wears multiple hats as producer, scriptwriter and director. Amina Barakat from Morocco, navigates the local film culture scene as well as throughout the continent. Franco-Burkinabé Claire Diao traverses an array of transmedia networks: podcasts, audio-visual programming, itinerant film curation, and diverse print media. Cameroonian journalist Stéphanie Dongmo, blogger, president of the Cameroon chapter of CNA, Cinema Numerique Ambulant, the extensive network of mobile cinema in Africa and Europe, is also a novelist. Falila Gbadamassi, journalist, film critic and social media editor, informs and wants to be informed about Africa in particular. From Nollywood to Bollywood via Hollywood, she is both a film enthusiast and critic. She writes for Africiné Magazine (Dakar), among other media. France-based independent journalist Amanda Kabuiku collaborates with several publications. Belgo-Congolese Djia Mambu keeps a visible presence at the important network of African film festivals, Cannes and beyond. Similarly, Belgium-based filmmaker and journalist Wendy Bashi is a host of the programme Reflets Sud on TV5 Monde. Cameroonian journalist and film critic Pélagie Ng'onana is an editor at the Dakar-based Africiné Magazine and collaborates with the Yaoundé-based cultural revue Mosaïques. Originally working as journalist, Nadège Batou wanted to expand her audience beyond the community-based media, hence, acquiring the necessary training as director and producer. She is founder and director of the Festival des 7 Quartiers in Brazzaville. Similarly journalist-filmmaker Annette Kouamba Matondo of Congo-Brazzaville, is also an avid blogger, using social media to showcase local social activities and women’s initiatives. Domoina Ratsara from Madagascar is president of the Association des Critiques Cinématographiques de Madagascar (ACCM) which she co-founded in December 2018Senegalese Fatou Kiné Sene is general secretary of the Senegalese Film Critics Association. The goal of Senegalese Fatou Warkha, creator of the online television channel Warkha TV is to change attitudes and laws, giving a face and voice to everyone who has been forgotten by the authorities.

Report by Beti Ellerson
 

Following are articles published on the African Women in Cinema Blog by this growing cohort of journalists. (The post will be updated to include additional names and links).

Regarding Anne Mbye d'Erneville: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/09/annette-mbaye-derneville-mere-bi.html

Regarding Thérèse Sita Bella: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/10/foremothers-in-african-cinema-therese.html

Regarding Horria Saihi: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/01/horria-saihi-portrait.html

Regarding Jihan El-Tahri: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/11/tete-tete-with-jihan-el-tahri.html

 

Regarding Mariem mint Beyrouk: https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/08/mariem-mint-beyrouk-mauritanian-women.html 

 

Maïram Guissé

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2025/12/mairam-guisse-sous-nos-peaux.html

 

Hortense Assaga
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/06/conference-du-pavillon-des-cinemas.html

Sitou Ayité
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/03/mis-me-binga-international-womens-film.html

Amina Barakat
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/12/asmae-el-moudir-filmmaking-has-been-my.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/09/report-on-6th-edition-of-international.html

 

Wendy Bashi
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/cinef-4-2018-cinema-au-feminin-kinshasa_83.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/clarisse-muvuba-cinef-women-who-dare-le.html

 

Nadège Batou
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/11/conversation-with-nadege-batou.html

Claire Diao
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/05/claire-diao-double-vague-le-nouveau.html
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.fr/2016/04/claire-angele-nadia-pocas-rama-inen.html
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.fr/2016/03/claire-diao-interview-bypar-stefania.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/examining-past-to-envision-future.html
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-gang-of-what-bande-de-quoi-bypar.html

Stéphanie Dongmo
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/nadine-otsobogo-public-is-shy-about.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/examining-past-to-envision-future.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-cinema-of-women-from-francophone.html
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/12/brigitte-rollet-african-women_20.html

Falila Gbadamassi
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/mati-diops-atlantique-in-foam-of.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/cannes-2019-maimouna-ndiaye-member-of.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/papicha-mounia-meddour-in-resistance.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/mati-diop-it-was-very-important-for-me.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/05/cannes-2018-sofia-byde-meryem-benmbarek.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/05/rafiki-to-our-forbidden-love-nos-amours.html

Amanda Kabuiku
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/05/gang-of-chicks-bande-de-meufs-analyse.html

Djia Mambu
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/djia-mambu-journalist-and-film-critic.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/08/djia-mambu-black-pourquoi-mavela-et-pas.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/04/djia-mambu-alices-diops-towards.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/02/djia-mambu-africine-meanwhile-theyre.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/10/djia-mambu-best-actress-award-for-much.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/01/and-what-film-editor-she-is-interview.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/01/interview-with-actress-prudence-maidou_29.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/10/remembering-khady-sylla-djia-mambu.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/04/femmes-de-cinema-cinema-de-femmes-women.html
 

Annette Kouamba Matondo
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/06/annette-kouamba-matondo-duty-of-memory.html

Pélagie Ng'onana
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/06/mis-me-binga-2017-womens-cinema.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/01/nejib-ayed-le-cinema-est-un-vrai-mur.html

Fatou Kiné Sene
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/03/mois-du-cinema-au-feminin-women-in.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/04/sur-la-rive-on-shore-byde-mariama-sy.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/11/mame-woury-thioubou-5-etoiles-un-recit.html

 

Domoina Ratsara

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/07/domoina-ratsara-malagasy-film-critic.html

 

Fatou Warkha
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/02/tv5monde-warkhatv-briser-le-silence-des.html
 

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates International Workers’ Day: African Women's Films of Women and Work

The African Women in Cinema Blog

celebrates International Workers’ Day 

African Women's Films of Women and Work 

 

Safi Faye's Fad,jal : "Fad signifies “Arrive” and Jal means “Work”. “Work” because when you arrive at this farming village called Fadial, you must work. When you work, you’re happy, and if you don’t work, people will mock you". 

 
A selection of articles from the African Women in Cinema Blog features interviews, film synopses and descriptions, analyses and discussions regarding women's work and labor as well as explorations regarding relationships with co-workers, employers and clients. The films explore strategies for empowerment, for organizing and solidarity, as well as highlight women's experiences in non-traditional jobs, as exploited laborers and as migrant workers.

Rosine Mbakam : Chez jolie coiffure
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/02/festival-films-femmes-afrique-2020_24.html

Safi Faye : Fad,jal
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/05/safi-fayes-fadjal-cannes-classics-2018.html

Safi Faye : Selbe, one among many | Selbe et tant d'autres
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/05/safi-faye-selbe-one-among-many-selbe-et.html
 

Ouaga Girls by/de Theresa Traoré Dahlberg
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/cinef-4-2018-cinema-au-feminin-kinshasa_7.html 

 

Bibata est partie… (Bibata is gone) by/de Nana Hadiza Akawala (Niger)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/02/fespaco-2019-bibata-est-partie-bibata.html

Labouring Women by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/08/labouring-women-by-tsitsi-dangarembga.html

Aïssata Ouarma: The Silence of Others
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/10/aissata-ouarma-silence-of-others.html

Theresa Traore Dahlberg and the Taxi Sister
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/06/theresa-traore-dahlberg-and-taxi-sister.html

Rahel Zegeye: The Experiences of an Ethiopian Migrant Worker and Filmmaker in Lebanon
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/09/rahel-zegeye-experiences-of-ethiopian.html

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates International Jazz Day with Betty Jazz by Armande Lo

The African Women in Cinema Blog celebrates

International Jazz Day

with Betty Jazz by Armande Lo

Synopsis

Mame Betty Diagne est passionnée de musique mais son extrême timidité l’empêche de vivre de sa passion. Sa vie va changer lorsqu’elle voit affiché à l’entrée d’un bar « urgent recherche chanteuse de jazz ».

Mame Betty Diagne is passionate about music but being extremely timid prevents her from living her passion. Her life will change when she sees an urgent search for a jazz singer posted at the entrance of a bar.

Biographie | Biography

Armande Lo, née à Dakar, a grandi à la sicap Baobab ; depuis sa naissance elle est passionnée de musique, d’art et de cinéma. Elle a eu l’opportunité de réaliser son rêve grâce à la formation cinématographique Kino Teranga. A l’issu de cette formation, 5 courts-métrages devaient être sélectionnés et tournés en 3 jours. Cette formation a ainsi donné naissance en mars 2018 à  Betty Jazz un court-métrage fiction de 9mn22s dont Armande LO est l’auteur et la réalisatrice.

Armande Lo was born in Dakar, grew up in the Baobab Sicap neighborhood and has always been passionate about music art and cinema. She had the opportunity to realize her dream by pursuing film training at Kino Teranga, after which she directed the short film Betty Jazz in 2018.

22 – 04 : International Mother Earth Day | Journée internationale de la Terre nourricière

THE AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA BLOG CELEBRATES | CELEBRE

International Mother Earth Day

Journée internationale de la Terre nourricière

my metaphor about "Pumzi" is life and sacrifice and that we ourselves have to mother mother nature

 

ma métaphore sur "Pumzi" est la vie et le sacrifice et que nous devons nous-mêmes nourrir la terre nourricière

 

--Wanuri Kahiu

 

Selected African Women in Cinema posts related to the environment:

#technology
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/01/kantarama-gahigiri-terra-mater.html
#resistance
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2022/10/afridocsanytime-women-hold-up-sky-film.html
#Environmental #Awareness
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2022/02/yamina-benguigui-dernier-poumon-ffa.html
#climate #water
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/07/cannes-2021-aissa-maiga-marcher-sur.html
#pollution
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/04/julie-djikey-performance-ozonisation.html

Journeys of identity in the works of Sarah Bouyain

Journeys of identity in the works of Sarah Bouyain

 

The article draws from several of my published works-- Beti Ellerson.

 

Image : sarahbouyain.fr 

 

Reflections of the works of Sarah Bouyain—the documentary, Les Enfants du blanc (Children of the White Man, 2000), the short novel Métisse façon, and the fiction feature, The Place in Between(2010) present a glimpse at Sarah Bouyain’s journeys of identity during which she teases out the personal and historical experiences of her bi-racial, bi-cultural and social identities.

 

Les Enfants du Blanc, a very moving film about Jeanne Bouyain, the paternal grandmother of Sarah Bouyain, also gives us an indication of the drama of her paternal great-grandmother. It is from the discoveries during her research that motivates her to "reflect on her own bi-raciality and her need to recognize and accept her roots." Here lies Sara Bouyain’s desire to trace her identity through her elders by giving a historical account of the practice of "colonial marriage" and the harsh consequences for the people born of those alliances—an important part of her family history. Her approach at the intersection of history and family research is very prominent in her work. Moreover, the interconnection of colonial desire and post-colonial identities and the resulting creation of a mixed-race class is an underlying subtext in the film. The colonizer-colonized relationship based on sexual power is the basis of the colonial forced concubinage and thus in many cases the birth of a mixed race which was the creation of a sector of the population that is neither black nor white.

 

This metissage identity is very present in the work of Sarah Bouyain: two cultures, two races, two languages, their historical construction and their contemporary lived experience, at the same time political and personal. One also observes a historical background of identities born of colonial practices as well as contemporary identities informed by the relationships that continue to exist between Europe and Africa: Métisse façon as a continuation of the comprehensive research in Les Enfants du blanc—the return to the source—and which is more closely tied to the film The Place in Between. The mixed-race protagonist Rachel in Métisse façon becomes Amy in The Place in Between. And rather than seeking her African father as in the former work, the protagonist goes to Africa in search of her mother, who is African in the latter, while the theme of “in-between-ness” remains the common thread.

 

The title of the original French version Notre Étrangère, “our foreigner”, has a very different meaning than the English title A Place in Between. Nevertheless, the two titles reflect the parallel stories that command the film. Amy and her mother Miriam are both "in a place between two" in the respective countries where they are located, and at the same time, both are foreign in these places. But why "our" foreigner, which was the nickname that her African family called her? In Africa at the same time different, Amy belongs to the family, to Africa. The presence of language—spoken and silent—undergirds the film. In Burkina Faso, Amy has to rely on the French translation by the adopted daughter Kadiatou into Dioula to "talk" with her aunt, while in France, Miriam teaches Dioula to a French businesswoman. Amy and Miriam seem isolated from the culture in which they are located. Similarly in Métisse Façon, language is a point of frustration. We recall in Les Enfants du blanc, while narrating the film Sarah Bouyain talks about her great grandmother who did not want to speak French. When Kadiatou is present and translates the Dioula-French dialogue between Aunt Acita and Amy,  subtitles are provided. However when they are alone and Tante Acita speaks to Amy in Dioula, the viewer who does not understand the language must comprehend by reading the gestures. Is it to show the point of view of Amy, who does not speak the language?

 

The presence of Amy's late father is virtually nonexistent. And besides, there is a great silence around Miriam in the family since Amy’s arrival in France to live with her father, up until his death a year earlier. However, the place of women is dominant. Amy, her mother Miriam, Mary, the wife of the father of Amy, Aunt Acita, Kadiatou, her adopted daughter, Esther, the business woman, and Miriam's roommate. Yet the intertwining web between these women is very fragile. In the end, the complex links between them seem to unravel, to collapse.

 

Sarah Bouyain’s research, and the theme of the loss of mother and child are omnipresent in her work. Amy reclaimed by her white father and brought to France at eight years old, is raised by him and his wife—to the chagrin of Mariam, and Acita her sister who raised her during her childhood in Burkina Faso. Soon after Amy’s departure, Mariam disappears. Kadiatou who loses her mother, is rejected by her father because his new wife does not want her in the family. Kadiatou who also became a companion for Acita after the death of her husband, replaces the "daughter" that she lost with the departure of Amy. Upon Amy’s return, it is as if Kadiatou again lost a mother. And Mary, the step-mother of Amy, who a year earlier had lost her husband, has to accept the departure of his daughter who after his death had the desire to find her mother. Mariam, lost and alone, who left Burkina Faso for France a long time ago, teaches Dioula to a white French woman whose reason for her interest in the language is only revealed when the announcement that the process of adoption of little Joseph, of Burkina Faso is finalized. Mariam senses a betrayal despite Marie’s effort to convince her that she is not stealing him from his mother. Mariam has only one desire: "to take from your mouth all the words that I taught you." A story of mothers and daughters wrought with anxiety...the journey continues.