Women | Les Femmes @ Fespaco 27 2021

Women | Les Femmes @ Fespaco 2021

 

Le Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou (FESPACO) - 16-23 octobre : Cinémas d’Afrique et de la diaspora. Nouveaux regards, nouveaux défis

FESPACO, the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou - 16-23 October : Cinemas of Africa and the diaspora. New perspectives, new challenges

 

 

 

Pays invité d'honneur | Country of honor: Senegal 

Opening film | Film d'ouverture

Atlantique de la franco-sénégalaise Mati Diop

Atlantique by Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop

 
Presidente du comité national d'organisation | President of the Organizing Committee

Alizata Dabire Sawadogo

 

Selection committee 

Pedro Pimenta (Mozambique), Djia Mambu (RDC), Thierno Ibrahima Dia (Sénégal), Katarina Hedrén (Ethiopie), Lina Chabanne (Tunisie), Boubacar Sangaré (Burkina Faso), Guy Désiré Yaméogo (Burkina Faso), Laza Razajanatovo (Madagascar).

 

In/dans the/le programme ACP-UE Culture
17 Oct: Panel “Strengthening the entrepreneurship of women filmmakers in ACP countries” (Yennenga Connexion) | « Renforcer l’entreprenariat des femmes réalisatrices des pays ACP » (Yennenga Connexion)
18 Oct: Round table “Achievements and challenges for women film professionals in ACP countries” (Yennenga Connexion)| Table-ronde « Acquis et défis pour les professionnelles du cinéma dans les pays ACP » (Yennenga Connexion)

19 Oct: Journée spéciale anniversaire - 60 ans de la Semaine de la Critique - Cannes au Fespaco - Table-rond sur la critique de cinema:
Avec Clémentine Farah, Claire Diao, Thierno Ibrahima Dia, Fatou Kiné Sene et Yoann Sardet (AlloCiné) Le rôle des critiques dans l’industrie du cinéma aujourd’hui, et notamment leurs missions de découverte, de prescription, de recommandation, en Afrique et en Europe.

 

LES JURYS | THE JURIES

 

Feature film jury | Le jury longs métrages fictions
Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania) President
Germaine Acogny (Senegal)
Salif Traoré alias Asalfo (Cote d'Ivoire)
Suleman Ramadan (South Africa)
Hamid Shaddad (Sudan)
Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso)
Chiraz Latri (Tunisia)

Le jury courts metrages | Short films
Angèle Diabang (Senegal) President 

Sid Lamine Salouka, (Burkina Faso)

Dorothée Wenner, (Germany)

Jury Documentary | Documentaire
Jihan El Tahir (Egypt) President
Hassane Kassi Kouyate (Burkina Faso)

Osvalde Lewat (Cameroon)

Abdenour Zahzah (Algeria)

Séries télé | Animation
Fréderic Lavigne (France) President

Angela Aquereburu (Togo)

Diane Kaneza (Burundi)

Tella Kpomahou (Côte d'Ivoire/Benin)

Abel Kouamé Nguessan (Côte d'Ivoire)

Jury Film d'Ecole | Film School
Salif Traore (Mali) President

Yasmine Chouikh (Algeria)
Clémentine Dusabejambo (Rwanda)
Gullit Matsinga Minguila (Burkina Faso)

Aristide Tarnagda (Burkina Faso)

 

Jury Section Perspectives | Perspectives Jury

Alain Gomis (Senegal) President

Adekunie "Nodash" Adejuyigbe (Nigeria)

Karim Ainouz (Algeria)

Boukary Sawadogo (Burkina Faso)

Abdourahm Waberi (Djibouti)

Jury Section Burkina

Moussa Absa Sene (Senegal) President

Janaina Oliveira (Brazil)

Joel Karekezi (Rwanda)

Domoina Ratsara (Madagascar)

Salia Sanou (Burkina Faso)

SELECTION OFFICIELLE | OFFICIAL SELECTION

 

Longs métrages fictions 

Farewell Amor de/by Ekwa Msangi (Tanzania) - Prix spécial Sembene Ousmane & Prix Signis
Freda de/by Gessica Généus (Haiti) - Étalon d’argent | Silver
Souad de/by Ayten Amin (Egypt)
The White Line de/by Desiree Kahikopo-Meiffret (Namibia)
Une Histoire d’amour et de désir de/by Leyla Bouzid (Tunisia) - Étalon de Bronze

Courts Métrages Fictions
Amani de/by Alliah Fafin (Rwanda) - Poulain d'argent | Silver
Anonymes de/by Fama Reyane Sow (Senegal)
Little Black Dress de/by Esteri Tebandeke (Uganda)
Nos voisins de/by Delphine Kaboré (Burkina Faso)
Tabaski de/by Laurence Attali (Senegal)
What did you dream de/by Karabo Lediga (South Africa)
Yamb de/by Winnele Veyret (Gabon)
Zalissa de/by Carine Bado (Burkina Faso) - Poulain de bronze & Prix Felix Houphouet Boigny

Documentary | Documentaire - Long métrages
Dans la maison | A Way Home by/de Karima Saïdi (Morocco)
Faya Dayi by/de Jessica Beshir (Ethiopia)
Marcher sur l’eau | Above Water de/by Aïssa Maïga (Senegal/Mali) - L’étalon d’argent | Silver etalon & Prix spécial UEMOA
On the Fence by/de Nesrine El Zayat (Egypt)
The Letter (La Lettre) by/de Maia Lekow (Kenya) - Prix spécial paix et securité
Valdiodio N’Diaye, Un Procès pour l’Histoire de/by Amina Ndiaye LeClerc (Senegal)
Zinder de/by Aicha Macky (Niger) - Special prize: Best woman filmmaker of West Africa | Prix speciaux: La meilleure femme cinéaste de l'Afrique de l'Ouest & Prix spécial femme, ambassadrice de paix

Documentary | Documentaire-Courts Métrages
5 étoiles by/de Mame Woury Thioubou (Senegal)
Boyi Biyo (Double Poumon) by/de Anne-Bertille Ndeysseit Vopiande (Rep Central Africa)
Ethereality by/de Kantarama Gahigiri (Rwanda) - Poulain d’or | Golden poulain
Fin by/de Lara Sousa (Mozambique)
Je me suis mordue la langue (I bit my tongue) by/de Nina Khada (Algeria) - Poulain d’argent | Silver poulain

Séries télé
Divine by/de Flavienne Tchatat (Cameroon)
Mami Wata : Le mystère d’iveza by/de Samantha Biffot (Gabon) - Second prize for best TV series | Second prix de la meilleure série TV
Voyage de rêve (Dream Trip) by/de Marina Niava Imboua (Côte d’Ivoire)
Walabok, comment va la jeunesse ? Fatou Kandé Senghor (Senegal) - First prize for best TV series | Premier prix de la meilleure série TV

Films d'Animation | Animation
Akplokplobito de/by Ingrid Agbo (Togo) - First prize for best animation film | Premier prix du meilleur film d'animation
Kitwana’s Journey (Le voyage de Kitwana) de/by Ng'endo Mukii (Kenya)
Les Contes de Raya by/de Adja Mariam Sanogo/Soro (Côte d’Ivoire)
The Satchel (La sacoche) by/de Nissi Ogulu (Nigeria)
The Underestimated Villain (Le méchant sous-estimé) by/de Comfort Arthur (Ghana)

Films des écoles de cinéma | Film Schools
Binan-Douhô, au pays des danses Lobi by/de Hery Jemima Grace Kambou (Côte d’Ivoire-Doc - ISTIC Abidjan, Côte-d’Ivoire)
Chassé-croisé (Crossover) by/de Lica Marièlie Dangnivo (Benin-Fiction    - ISMA, Benin)
Dann Dole (Résilience) by/de Lopy (Senegal-Doc - Forut Media Centre Dakar, Senegal)
De l’autre côté by/de Marie Essono (Gabon-Fiction - ESAV Marrakech, Maroc)
Femme en couleur (woman in color) by/de Nancy Comlan & Joseph Avimadje (Benin-Doc - ISMA, Benin)
Intraduisible décision de/by Agnon Flora Dongbehounde (Benin-Fiction - ISMA, Benin)
Italè (Identité) by/de Zinhoué Fleur Gloria Hessou (Benin-Fiction - ISMA, Benin)
La Différence, une richesse de/by Assétou Kone (Mali-Doc - Conservatoire Ballafasséké, Mali)
Orisha (Vaudou) by/de Léila Adje-Chabi Olayèmi (Benin-Fiction - ISMA, Benin)
Polia by/de Ndèye Astou Bassene (Senegal-Fiction - ISEP - Thies, Sénégal)
Subtil by/de Dissirama Bessoga (Togo-Fiction - ESTEC du Togo)
Une vie volée de/by Arlette Jessica Valla (Burkina Faso-Fiction - ISIS-SE du Burkina Faso)
Vérité de sang by/de Nathalie Kagembega (Burkina Faso-Fiction - ISIS-SE du Burkina Faso)

African girls, women, education and cinema

African girls, women, education and cinema

Report by Beti Ellerson. Published 26 September 2009. Updated June 2021.

African women filmmakers have long championed increasing literacy in Africa and have put the spotlight on the education of girls using themes in their films that focus on the importance of girls’ education. There is an African proverb that states: Educate a boy, you educate an individual, educate a girl, you educate a community. This statement draws attention as well to the widespread practice of giving preference to boys over girls when it comes to education. The Zimbabwean writer/filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga reveals this disparity in her internationally acclaimed novel Nervous Conditions (1989). Similarly, Burkinabé Valerie Kaboré emphasizes this inequality and its implications in her documentary series Naitre fille en Afrique/To Be Born a Girl in Africa (1997). She has this to say about the importance of girls’ education:

"I think, generally speaking, that African women have much to bring to the development of our continent. It is for this reason that we fight more and more so that women may be trained and educated and have at least a minimum amount of instruction; because to put a woman in school is to teach her how to open the door to life. Even if she does not go to school for a long period of time, she can at least acquire a minimum amount of knowledge to be able to manage her household and communicate values to her children for their future. In general, the development of Africa depends on what we will do for women of our generation and those of the future."

Kenyan producer, Catherine Wangui Muigui has a similar view:

"The education for girls is one of the many issues that we are trying to raise, and films can play a role to encourage it. If girls are educated, they will be able to uplift their families. Women are very important in society: if you uplift a woman you are actually uplifting the whole family. You are also empowering the woman."

Burkinabé filmmaker Florentine Yameogo observes, as well, the specific role of women in the education of children:

"Women are generally the ones who educate children, and perhaps it is for this reason that a great many more women than men are interested in the needs of children."

Pioneer Senegalese filmmaker Safi Faye, who was a teacher before taking up anthropology and filmmaking, continues this role using filmmaking as a tool for teaching and learning. In her film Mossane (1996) she confronts the multi-layered issues of and attitudes towards education in Africa. Among other parallel events of the film, the return of Fara to the village because of a strike, precipitates the arranged marriage by proxy of his beloved Mossane to Diogoye, a wealthy man who now lives in Paris. Fara as university student is positioned as the counterpoint to the change vs tradition dichotomy. His presence intensifies and deepens Mossane’s desire for him and emboldens her resistance to the arranged marriage. While in seclusion during her wedding she confides to her cousin Dibor: “Father and mother stopped my studies which would have allowed me to live independently and wait for the man I love.” Faye thus underscores that Mossane “had to abandon her studies because she was put in the situation of a forced marriage” thus leaving her economically dependent and emotionally unfulfilled. Education becomes the vexed symbol of opposing forces. Fara drives this point at the moment when he understands that he can do nothing to prevent the marriage. He states with resignation: “What can I give to Mossane? How can I reimburse all that her parents have received from Diogoye? I have nothing, nothing at all. I am a poor student.” Despite the apparent hopelessness of their situation, 14-year old Mossane resists, to the chagrin of her parents who had thought that they could avoid any defiance to tradition. Mossane’s father states to her mother: “I pulled Mossane out of school to prevent this, as school would give our children a bastardized education. They would leave us but at the same time not arrive at their destination. They would be eternal wanderers. And a proverb of ours says: A backside cannot mount two horses at once without running the risk of being torn apart.” Thus her parents perceive African traditional education and western education as irreconcilable—a recurrent theme in African films.

Kenyan Anne Mungai explores a similar theme in the film Saikati (1992). After pressure from the family to marry the village chief’s son, the eponymous Saikati, refuses to abandon her studies and flees to the Nairobi capital with her cousin. After resisting the vices of the big city, she returns to the village to find a family more willing to consider her desire for education.

While many films indicate the mother’s complicity in her daughter’s lack of education, Burkinabé Fanta Nacro’s Bintou (2001) constructs the mother as agent of change fighting for her daughter to go to school when her husband refuses. As the protagonist Bintou has no apparent means to earn the required funds for her daughter’s education, the film’s message is multi-fold. Bintou is empowered by other women to draw from her own experiences and capitalize on them.

Also aware of the importance of girls’ education, African male filmmakers reflect the theme in their films. One of the highlights of the posthumous film of Senegalese Djibril Diop Mambety (1945-1998), La Petite vendeuse de Soleil/The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999) is Sili signing her name on the “contract” after receiving thirteen newspapers to sell. A crippled twelve-year-old who does not read or write, Sili proves that she can also sell newspapers like her male counterparts. Serious about her ability to secure a job rather than beg on the streets, for her signature, she draws an image of the sun on the “contract”. Her selling the Senegalese daily newspaper, Le Soleil, which means “the sun” in French, is also symbolic in that it juxtaposes her non-literacy with the purchasers of the newspapers, literate in the French language, the administrative and official language of Senegal. It demonstrates as well the positive results of a woman’s support in a girl’s effort to succeed, as evident in the following excerpt from the film: 

Sili: Grandma I will go find work tomorrow. I am not a boy. What boys do, girls can do, too!

Sili at newspaper distribution center: Hello. I want to sell the Soleil.

Male owner of newspaper distribution center: You want to sell the Soleil? A girl selling newspapers?

Female administrator: Boss, what boys do, girls can do too.

Male owner: Give her the papers in the back there.

Female administrator after counting the papers: 13 Soleils, that’s a lucky number.

In the first scene of Mambety’s earlier film the iconoclast Touki Bouki (1973), the university student Anta, is sitting at a table reading a book. Throughout the film she challenges tradition as she wears pants and jacket and rides around Dakar on a motorbike with her boyfriend. The same actor, Miriam Niang, plays the role of Rama, also a rebellious university student, in the film Xala (1974) by Senegalese Ousmane Sembene (1923-2007). Faat Kine (2000), also by Sembene is a feminist manifesto of sorts, as all the female characters are empowered. Faat Kine single-handedly raises her two children, Aby and Djip who are about to complete their “bac” (high school diploma). Aby and her brother have received the news of their success to great applause and a fete finale. Moreover, the film confronts the practice of giving preference to boys in education, as both children, daughter and son, are treated equally; they support each other and celebrate each other’s success.

Wanjiru Kinyanjui from Kenya recounts her project, which focuses on girls and education:

“African Children which favors the girl-child stage…is a documentary on teenage girls. The film seeks to give a differentiated image of how others see Africa and its people. The general image that goes through the media is Africa's helplessness, poverty, chaos, war, catastrophes, etc. It is certainly far from being about "typical" African catastrophes, as it concentrates on the daily lives, beliefs, dreams, and expressions of these girls. Very few reports show normal girls going to school, eating, laughing, being cheeky like any other teenagers, leading a normal life. This film is educational in terms of informing people out there that Africans are just people despite the setbacks. And people are people. This film is about strong schoolgirls who lead very normal lives, according to themselves. It is told by themselves and not by a commentator. The girls give their own stories the way they will, they share their daily life with the audience. They are ambitious and strong and they are very hard working.”

Bruktawit Tigabu, an elementary teacher in Ethiopia who wants to improve literacy, especially for young girls, is founder and director of Whiz Kids. She is developing the “Tibeb Girls Series”, an animation project about three young super heroines.

Girl education advocate Zuriel Oduwole believes that all girls should have a right to education and her vision is to empower them to accomplish their dreams as she has., U.S.-born of Mauritian and  Nigerian heritage, she self-produced a film at the age of 12, in 2014. Since 2016, she has been conducting filmmaking classes for youths in Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya and Mexico.

Cinema thus may be an awareness-building tool. Raising the viewer’s consciousness about the educational inequalities that exist for the girl-child and women, at the same time showing realities through fiction and non-fiction. Realities that reveal the empowerment of women through education.

References and works cited:

Interview with Valerie Kabore, Sisters of the Screen
Interview with Wanjiru Kinyanjui, Sisters of the Screen
Interview with Catherine Wangui Muigui, Sisters of the Screen
Interview with Florentine Yameogo, Sisters of the Screen

Following are a selection of articles on the African Women in Cinema Blog highlighting strategies for empowering girls through education and literacy (to be updated to include new content) :

Super Sema. An Afro-futuristic animation series: Time to Change the World
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/03/super-sema-afro-futuristic-animation.html

Irène Tassembedo Un jeudi au quartier (one Thursday in the neighborhood) Burkina Faso
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/vues-dafrique-2021-irene-tassembedo-un.html

La femme lionne (The Woman Lioness) by/de Lobé Ndiaye (Senegal)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/02/lobe-ndiaye-la-femme-lionne-woman.html

African women, girls, cinema and education girls
My Ethiopian Story by 15 Year Old Filmmaker Zuriel Oduwole
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/08/my-ethiopian-story-by-15-year-old.html

Aïcha Macky : Education shapes futures | L’éducation façonne l’avenir
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/10/aicha-macky-education-shapes-futures.html

Girl filmmaker Zuriel Oduwole: “…using my documentaries to tell Africa's story.”
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/03/girl-filmmaker-zuriel-oduwole-using-my.html

Valérie Kaboré: Regards au féminin and the Ina Series
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/05/valerie-kabore-regards-au-feminin.html

A Call to Action: UN Themes and African Women in Cinema
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2009/11/call-to-action-un-themes-and-african.html

Beti Ellerson: Blogging African Women in Cinema (a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema)

The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.

At the start of my research on African women in cinema in 1996, I asked the question: What is an African woman's vision, her gaze, her way of seeing and visualizing?

I began to explore the interests and desires of African women in front of and behind the camera, both as actor and as filmmaker—as well as other filmmaking professionals, which evolved into the on-going African Women in Cinema Project: the documentary, Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema, the book, Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television; the Centre for the Study and Research on African Women in Cinema and the African Women in Cinema Blog. Others before me have posed similar questions which have informed my own research and work. These questions are still relevant today as an African Women in Cinema Studies emerges, positioning itself within its own space for critical inquiry. The emerging discourse on African Women in Cinema Studies encompasses the films themselves, auto/biographies, film criticism, film analysis, and interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of culture, development, and political economy. The blog serves as a forum for discussion and sharing of information.

The main objective of the Blog is to showcase African women in the diverse areas of the moving image. This format is an effective way to profile emerging talents as they begin their experiences in cinema at the same time highlighting the trailblazers, pioneers and veterans--and those in various stages of their career. I am especially interested in making visible the important players that are often behind the scenes, such as producers, editors, film festival organizers, scriptwriters, media activists and advocates, and the many others involved in the filmmaking process. The posts may vary in length and frequency, as the purpose is to provide a portrait, at a glance. The choice of women or theme will be spontaneous, of course, privileging current events and topics; but also delving into the rich archives to foreground films and stories of the past.

The blog explores themes such as:

• The evolution of African women in cinema

• African women and the cinematic gaze

• African women’s visual imaginary

• The political economy of African women in the moving image

• The filmic representation of African women
• Women's voices

The blog follows current events relevant to African women in cinema such as:

• Festivals

• Films in progress

• Announcements for grants and funding

• Call for scripts and films

• Production related topics

• Academic topics such as conferences, panel discussions, articles and call for papers

And more…

 

Discover and explore the vast resources accumulated on the Blog since 2009. In descending order on the column to your right… https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/

 

 ABOUT ME

 

I have a Ph.D. in African Studies (Howard University, USA) with interdisciplinary specialisations in Visual Culture, African Cinema Studies, and Women Studies; after which I carried out postdoctoral research on African Women in the Visual Media on a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship. As a feminist I have always been interested in critically engaging women's issues, and academically I wanted to make a critical inquiry into African women's experiences through the medium of the moving image. This inquiry led to my interest in forging an African Women Cinema Studies subdiscipline, which encompasses research in historiography and spectatorship as well as the hands-on work of advocacy and production.

My research on African women in cinema, includes the book Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television (Africa World Press, 2000), the film documentary, Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema (2002, Women Make Movies) and the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema founded in 2008. The Centre encompasses the African Women in Cinema Blog, and a presence on social media.

Before producing the documentary, Sisters of the Screen, I was involved locally in community television and video production in Washington DC, and was executive producer and host of the 27-episode series, "Reels of Colour", which aired from 1997 to 2000 in the Washington DC area.

I am globally engaged on the topic of African women and the moving image, including: keynote speaker at the 2012 colloquy on Francophone African Women Filmmakers in Paris; moderator of the Afrika Film Festival Cologne 2016, Fokus: Sisters in African Cinema Roundtable in Cologne, Germany; filmmaker/scholar-in-residence at Texas Tech University in spring 2017; research presentation at the International Women’s Film Festival of Salé in Morocco in September 2017. I have had a visible presence on the jury at several prominent African film festivals: member of the Grand Jury at the International Images Film Festival for Women held in Harare (2011), FESPACO (2013) as president of the Diaspora Jury, member of the Grand Jury at the Carthage Film Festival (JCC) in 2018.  I lecture widely on Africana women in visual culture--beginning with my signature course Black Women in Visual Culture, created in 2000 at Howard University, African women in cinema studies and African women and screen culture. Since 2015 I have curated the African Women in Cinema Dossier in Black Camera, An International Film Journal.