Black Camera: Reading, Writing, Researching African Women in Cinema—Reflections on Sisters of the Screen-25 years and the African Women in Cinema Dossier 10 years onward by Beti Ellerson

Black Camera an International Film Journal

Volume 16, Number 2 Spring 2025

Reading, Writing, Researching African Women in Cinema

Reflections on Sisters of the Screen-25 years

and

the African Women in Cinema Dossier 10 years onward

by Beti Ellerson

https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55047

pp. 181-222
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00066 

 

This project has as purpose to trace the journey of Sisters of the Screen twenty-five years onward and the trajectory of the African Women in Cinema Dossier from its inception ten years ago to the present. Sisters of the Screen, the title of the book, and the film—released two years later—was conceived as a critical inquiry into all manner of African women of the moving image. Shortly afterward, the Center for the Study and Research of African Women was established as a virtual environment in which to channel and disseminate the knowledge production of this ever-growing field. With the emergence of social media, the African Women in Cinema Blog has served as a public forum in which to disseminate these ideas. Similarly, the Dossier has been the conduit for the publication of research, as well as a space to develop and share theories and concepts.

 

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies: Discussion of the Literature - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies - Discussion of the Literature - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

See also:

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies: Beginnings - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

 

In the spirit of the Black Women’s Studies Movement and the objectives of the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD/AFARD) this discussion privileges African and Afrodescendant voices and research sources, hence the purpose is to draw especially from the rich knowledge of the continent and the African diaspora.

While the emergence of African Women in Cinema Studies dates to 2000, literature on or by African women and the moving image may be traced to at least the 1960s. The Italian-language book Cinema e Africa nera, one of the first studies about African cinema by an African, published in Italy in 1968, was based on the academic research of Nigerian Joy Nwosu, who studied at Pro Deo University in Rome. It is worth noting her words of wisdom when undertaking research: “That is important, if you are doing research on [the topic of African cinema], you must look at my work, and if you have not then that means that you have not done your research properly…Not because of the joy of reading it, but to know what has been there, that it has been done and how it all started…that is why it is very relevant for today.”

The Senegal-based French-language women’s magazine Awa, la revue de la femme noire (1964–1973) featured photographs and short profiles on African actresses of the fledgling African cinemas. The emergence of Awa, initially launched by veteran journalist, feminist, cultural activist 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.  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.

Amina Magazine created in 1972 continued this tradition of profiles and interviews of women stakeholders in the cinema industry; journalist Assiatou Bah Diallo, who was the longtime editor-in-chief, made an important contribution, ensuring the visibility of African women of the moving image in its pages. While presented in a journalistic format, these remain important sources regarding contemporaneous experiences, relevant events, and information and newly-released films.

Ousmane Sembene was one of the first African filmmakers to put women at the forefront of his films, depicting them as the complex, multi-layered women they are in reality. Both his  literary and cinematic oeuvres have from the beginning held an important place in discourse on representations of African women in cinema and literature. The 1969 article “Les femmes dans l’oeuvre littéraire d’Ousmane Sembene” by Jarmila Ortova is one of the first works analyzing the representation of women in his literary works. Similarly, Carrie D. Moore’s 1972 article “The Role of Women in the Works of Sembene Ousmane” was one of the first English-language works.

The 1974 issue of Women and Film, which dedicated an extensive series to Sarah Maldoror, was one of the first comprehensive English-language analyses of the early works of Maldoror, with her reflections and an interview. The second comprehensive English-language study of her work from 1970 to 1986 by Françoise Pfaff is included in her book Twenty-Five Black African Filmmakers, published in 1988. A similar comprehensive study of Safi Faye and her work from 1972–1984 is also included in Françoise Pfaff’s book. In addition, I have expanded the Safi Faye literature to include “Through an African Woman’s Eyes: Safi Faye’s Cinema”, a critical analysis, published in 2004, and after her passing a tribute entitled “I dared to make a film, a tribute to the life and work of Safi Faye,” published in 2023.

Now that Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020) and Safi Faye (1943-2023) have joined the ancestors, there is a growing interest in their legacy, with written and transmedial tributes. The African Women in Cinema Blog has attempted to collect the multiple references for both Sarah Maldoror and Safi Faye.

The arrival of the pioneering African woman filmmaker with a corpus of work to study, marked the advent of African women in cinema literature, mostly in French and English. As the interest in African women in cinema studies expands internationally, literature in German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are finding a compelling readership. One of the first analyses of women in African cinema, in front of and behind the camera under the title “La femme dans le cinéma africain” was authored in 1977 by African cinema historian and filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra. Most of the other works during this period add to the previous corpus of work on Safi Faye and the representation of women in the films of Sembene.

The journal Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, which analyses visual media at the intersection of race, gender, and class, featured several articles on women and African cinema beginning in the 1980s. In the February 1984 issue, Claudia Springer’s article “Black Women Filmmakers” highlighted three African women, Nigerians Ruby Bell-Gam and Ijeoma Iloputaife as well as Anne Ngu from Cameroon. It is one of the first analyses of African women film practitioners studying and working in the United States.

The 1980s also witnessed the emergence of graduate studies on African women in cinema, generally focusing on representations in film. One may note the presence of African women undertaking academic studies on African women in cinema; for example, Rosette Léonie Yangba-Zowe’s 1987 research, “Divers aspects d  marriage and the role des femmes dans l’oeuvre cinématographique d’Oumarou Ganda,” on the diverse aspects of marriage and the role of women in the films of Oumarou Ganda, a pioneering filmmaker of Niger. The trend continues with Chido Matewa’s master’s dissertation, “The Role of the Media in the Subordination of Women in Africa,” and the section “Case Study of Africa Women Filmmakers Trust,” in her doctoral dissertation, “Media and the Empowerment of Communities for Social Change”; Wanjiku Beatrice Mukora’s master’s dissertation, “Disrupting Binary Divisions: Representation of Identity in Saikati and Battle of the Sacred Tree”; Dominica Dipio’s doctoral dissertation published as the book Gender Terrains in African Cinema; Joyce Osei Owusu’s master’s and doctoral dissertations, “Women and the Screen: A Study of Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s Life and Living It and Scorned” and “Ghanaian Women and Film: An Examination of Female Representation and Audience Reception,” and Carolyn Khamete Mango’s dissertation thesis, “The presence of women in the Kenyan film industry: applying postcolonial African feminist theory.”

From 1990 to 1998, Ecrans d’Afrique/African Screens, the pan-African review published by the pan-African Federation of African Cineastes, provided a wealth of cinema-related information such as profiles, interviews, newly released films, films in production, in-focus presentations, analyses, and relevant announcements, with women prominently featured in the pages and on the covers. Though it is no longer active, it is an important archive for research and study. Françoise Pfaff’s 1991 article “Eroticism and Sub-Saharan African Films,” one of the first studies on sexuality and the body in African films, is a forerunner to the abundance of works on the theme appearing in the 1990s and 2000s, for instance, Gender and Sexuality in African Literature and Film edited by Ada Uzoamaka Azodo and Maureen Ngozi Eke in 2007; the doctoral dissertation of Ousmane Ouedraogo, “Gender and Sexuality in West African Francophone Cinema” in 2008; and the doctoral dissertation of Naminata Diabate, “Genital Power: Female Sexuality in West African Literature and Film,” in 2011.

Chinyere Stella Okunna’s 1996 study “Portrayal of Women in Nigerian Home Video Films: Empowerment or Subjugation?” is a precursor to the plethora of subsequent research on representations of women that proliferated in the 2000s, especially on what would be known as “Nollywood.” Agatha Ukata’s 2010 doctoral dissertation “The Image(s) of Women in Nigerian (Nollywood) Videos” is an example of the heightened attention paid to this phenomenon and the representations of women in the images. And to further emphasize, they are both African women researching about African women.

As more films by and about women became accessible in the 1990s, there was a growing interest in studying, teaching, and discussing women-directed films and films in general with realistic and empowering women characters—in the classroom as well as in cultural venues and film festivals. The emergence of an “African women in cinema movement” gave impetus to a body of work in the form of manifestos, declarations, proceedings, and repertories. Najwa Tlili’s Femmes d’Images de l’Afrique Francophone, published in 1994, was a direct result of one of the objectives of the colloquium “Images de femmes,” the African women’s meeting held at the Vues d’Afrique festival in Montreal in 1989, to create an index bringing together the biography and filmography of francophone African women. The directory also includes short dialogues of varying lengths, of forty women in response to the question “why do you make films?” as well as an interview with artist/filmmaker/activist Werewere Liking. The historic meeting at FESPACO (Pan-African Festival of Film and Television of Ouagadougou) in 1991, which in many ways became the genesis of a continent-wide “women of the image” movement, set out its objectives through a pointed declaration, outlining the exasperations, hopes, frustrations, and interest of the participants, and by inference, African women professionals of the image in general. Similar manifestos were presented at the meeting of the African Women Filmmakers Conference in 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa and in 2013 at the African Women Film Forum in Accra, Ghana. Hence, these statements serve as a record of the intentions, ideas, and experiences of the period and also as a means to assess the decision-making process at a certain time and the manner in which issues were later resolved.

My 1996–1997 postdoctoral work on African women in the visual media culminated in seminal works on African women in cinema studies, including the book Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television, released in 2000; and the companion film, Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema, in 2002. The book introduces the concept of “African women cinema studies,” (which has been renamed as ‘African Women in Cinema Studies’) presenting a methodology, historiography, theoretical framework, filmography, and bibliography. And also of importance, there is a collection of interviews of pioneering women and those who had recently entered the profession. This is significant in that those voices informed the methodology and provide the framework for future research as primary sources: as women’s stories, expressing their needs, interests, and problems. The film, based on excerpts of the filmed interviews transcribed for the book, has been a valuable source in women’s studies, African studies, and international studies. The Internet-based Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema and the African Women in Cinema Blog are extensions of this project, with the continuation of interviews, analyses of films, and the dissemination of related content. The plethora of scholarly works—including articles, books, conferences, forums, and colloquia that have bourgeoned in the new millennium—ensure the development of the sub-field of African women in cinema studies and its continued growth.

With the emergence of the Internet, digital journalism and transmedial environments have provided an important space for the visibility of African women journalists and content creators. Throughout the continent this cohort of women are actively engaged in film journalism and storytelling in association with digital portals such as Africine.org, the African press in general, in affiliation with Western news outlets or as creators of their own media production enterprise. Angela Aquereburu, with her partner, founded Yobo Studios, whose objective is to provide original and exportable programs and bring a different perspective regarding Africa. 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 2018. Mame Woury Thioubou, journalist and filmmaker, is just as much at ease with the pen as with a camera. Tools that allow her to observe and describe her world, to share feelings. An exercise that has earned her honors worldwide. Senegalese 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.

The boundaries between research, filmmaking/storytelling, criticism, activism, networking are blurred, intermingled within transmedial environments where African women makers themselves control the production, dissemination and validation of knowledge.

Some parts of the text are drawn from my article, "African Women in Film, the Moving Image, and Screen Culture." Oxford Research Encyclopedias, African History, 2019, and the Blog article, "African Women Journalists: Critical Engagements in African Cinemas", 2021.

L'impact de l'adaptation des œuvres littéraires sur le marché du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel en Afrique - Salon du livre féminin de Dakar #3 Panel - Littérature et Cinéma

Salon du livre féminin de Dakar #3 Panel -  Littérature  et Cinéma : 

L'impact de l'adaptation des œuvres littéraires sur le marché du cinéma

et de l'audiovisuel en Afrique

Intervenantes : Fama Rey Ane Sow, Sokhna Benga, Rokhaya Niang et Angèle Assie Diabang.
Fatou Kiné Sène modératrice

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies: Beginnings - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies: Beginnings - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

See also:

Researches in African Women in Cinema Studies - Discussion of the Literature - a dossier by Beti Ellerson

The year 2025 inaugurates a new heading to be featured on the African Women in Cinema Blog, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the release of the book Sisters of the Screen, Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television in 2000, followed by the film Sisters of the Screen, African Women in the Cinema, in 2002. The genesis of African Women in Cinema Studies (AFWCS) is the outgrowth of the Sisters of the Screen Project, drawing directly from the voices of the women whose interviews are included in the book and the film. The tenets of AFWCS is informed by my experiences with three entities:

(1) The direct impact of the Black Women’s Studies movement in the 1970s in the United States on my social, academic and intellectual development.

(2) My engagement with the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD/AFARD) founded in 1977.

(3) The emergence of an African Women in Cinema movement spearhead by the Pan-African Union of Women in the Image Industry/l'Union panafricaine des femmes de l'image created in 1991.

Black Women’s Studies movement in the United States

I recalled the provocative title All the Women Are White all the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies, the year was 1982. The objective of the book was to address the intersectionality of Black women’s experiences—rendered invisible in the interstices of the Civil Rights-Black Power and white dominated feminist movements.


Association of African Women for Research and Development

Similarly, AAWORD/AFARD’s aim was to provide the framework for interrogating the Euro-centric orientation of research in general, and to affirm gender as a variable, which would counterbalance concepts and scientific methodology hitherto largely influenced by the dominant patriarchal culture. The AAWORD/AFARD Constitution of 1983, outlined the objective as follows:

(1) To undertake research which calls for crucial and conscious participation of women in the decision-making process and the formulation, realization and evaluation of development priorities and projects;

(2) To reveal, reinstate and emphasize the presence of women throughout history and in all cultural, social, economic and political processes of change;

(3) To create and develop lines of communication among African women on the one hand and between women researchers and others concerned [with] problems of development in Africa on the other;

(4) To evaluate and re-examine the methodology and research priorities, the applications of which should be in the service of the African people.

Hence, it is the voices of African women as primary sources that will produce, disseminate and validate African knowledge.

The emergence of an African Women in Cinema movement

Anne Mungai recalls the masculinist dominance of FEPACI and the significance of the 1991 FESPACO platform organized under the title "Women, Cinema, Television and Video in Africa.” The inaugural meeting of what would be called the Pan-African Union of Women in the Image Industry/l'Union panafricaine des femmes de l'image outlined its purpose in this way:

(1) to provide a forum for women to exchange and share their experiences;

(2) to adopt propositions that will help ensure women their rightful place, particularly in the areas of training and production;

(3) to devise a follow-up structure for dialogue and common action;

(4) to identify the frustrations of women professionals and produce images that consciously reflect women's realities, social contexts, cultures, and histories; and

(5) to disseminate that perspective.

The Sisters of the Screen Project set out in search of these women in cinema, who through the power of their voices collectively shared the knowledge that would frame the tenets of an African Women in Cinema Studies.

Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers - Beyond Representation - Edited by Suzanne Crosta, Sada Niang, Alexie Tcheuyap

Francophone African Women

Documentary Filmmakers

Beyond Representation

Edited by Suzanne Crosta, Sada Niang, Alexie Tcheuyap

DESCRIPTION

Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers is groundbreaking edited collection which explores the contributions of Francophone African women to the field of documentary filmmaking. Rich in its scope and critical vision it constitutes a timely contribution to cutting-edge scholarly debates on African cinemas.

Featuring 10 chapters from prominent film scholars, it explores the distinctive documentary work and contributions of Francophone African women filmmakers since the 1960s. It focuses documentaries by North African and Sub-Saharan women filmmakers, including the pioneering work of Safi Faye in Kaddu Beykat, Rama Thiaw's The Revolution Will Not be Televised, Katy Lena Ndiaye's Le Cercle des noyes and En attendant les hommes, Dalila Ennadre's Fama: Heroism Without Glory and Leila Kitani's Nos lieux interdits.

Shunned from costly fictional- 35mm-filmmaking, Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers examines how these women engaged and experimented with documentary filmmaking in personal, evocative ways that countered the officially sanctioned, nationalist practice of show and teach/promote.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction, by Suzanne Crosta, Sada Niang, and Alexie Tcheuyap
1. Documenting the Unseemly: Moroccan Women's Documentaries in the 2000s, by Florence Martin
2. Outsiders on the Inside: Rokhaya Diallo's Les marches de la liberté as Activist Documentary, by Sheila Petty
3. Challenging Documentary Practice: A Return to Safi Faye's Kaddu Beykat, by Melissa Thackway
4. Revisiting the "Domestic Ethnography" Approach in Khady Sylla's Une Fenêtre ouverte, by El Hadji Moustapha Diop
5. Tales of Colonels: Auteurship and Authority in Mama Colonel (2017) and This is Congo (2017), by Alexie Tcheuyap and Felix Veilleux
6. Authorizing Reality in Leila Kilani's Our Forbidden Places (2008) and Kaouther Ben Hania's The Slasher of Tunis (2014), by Suzanne Gauch
7. Documenting Tyranny: The Politics of Memory in Leila Kilani and Osvalde Lewat, by Herve Tchumkam
8. Ecological Representations in African Women Documentaries, by Suzanne Crosta
9. Looping the Loop: Rama Thiaw's The Revolution Won't Be Televised (2016), by Sada Niang
10. Dancing with the Camera: Interview with Nadine Otsobogo, by Suzanne Crosta, Sada Niang, and Alexie Tcheuyap
Index

Indiana University Press: https://iupress.org/9780253066534/francophone-african-women-documentary-filmmakers/

Argumentaire: Colloque international : Le cinéma et l’audiovisuel marocain au féminin - 18 et 19 avril 2024

Université Cadi Ayyad

Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines – Marrakech

Laboratoire Langue Identité Médias Patrimoine Culture et Tourisme LIMPACT 

Colloque international : 18 et 19 avril 2024

Le cinéma et l’audiovisuel marocain au féminin

Argumentaire 

Durant ces deux décennies, on a assisté à une féminisation des métiers du cinéma et de la télévision. Les postes dans le milieu de l’audiovisuel se féminisent de plus en plus. Les femmes occupent désormais des postes de réalisateurs, de monteurs, de cadreurs, de gérants de salle de cinéma, de producteurs... Cet état de fait interpelle les chercheurs et les observateurs et les pousse à s’interroger sur la nature de ce nouveau regard féminin ainsi que sur les conditions socio-culturelles de son émergence. 

Le présent colloque international s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet Ibn Khladoun « Cinéma, télévision et genre : évolution de la représentation de la femme à travers les médias marocains », financé par le Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique. Il vise à : 

1- établir un état des lieux de la participation féminine à la création filmique ; 

2- interroger l’apport du regard féminin à la fois au niveau esthétique et au niveau thématique. 

À la croisée des pratiques littéraires, linguistiques, sémiotiques et esthétiques, le projet de recherche a été initié en 2020, quelques mois avant la pandémie. 

L’équipe de recherche du laboratoire Langue Identité Médias Patrimoine Culture et Tourisme (LIMPACT), porteuse du projet, a publié un livre analytique sur les femmes à l’écran et derrière la caméra, Le Cinéma marocain au féminin. Elle a également participé à la réalisation d’une trentaine de documentaires sur les métiers de réalisatrice, scénariste, productrice, monteuse, preneuse de son, accessoiriste, costumière, maquilleuse... 

Pour clore le projet, l’équipe de recherche du laboratoire LIMPACT organise un colloque international qui invite à réfléchir sur les nouvelles questions liées à la femme au cinéma et à la télévision.

Les axes d’études du colloque 

Axe 1 : L’espace féminin dans le cinéma marocain 

Dans les premiers films tournés au Maroc, le regard porté sur la société était occidental : les réalisateurs, tous étrangers, portaient un regard plus ou moins « réaliste ». Ils racontaient et parlaient de la société de l’époque. Ils avaient une vision esthétique et cinématographique propres à eux. Certains cinéastes marocains, qui ont pris la relève, ont choisi un autre point de vue. D’autres se sont contentés de construire leur propre imaginaire en filmant des femmes « pieuses ou impies ». L’espace de la cuisine était associé aux femmes et celui du dehors (café, souks) aux hommes.

 

Aujourd’hui qu’en est-il de cet espace ? Est-il toujours protégé comme avant ou est-il devenu un espace clos, non protégé, un espace ouvert et insignifiant ?

 

Selon le critique Mohammed Bakrim, le cinéma est une « “boîte noire” des sociétés modernes » (Le Miroir et l’Écho, 2018, p. 16). S’agissant du cinéma dans les pays du Maghreb, l’auteur dit ceci : « Les trois cinéma ont ainsi forgé des grammaires narratives emblématiques distinctes : un protagoniste déclassé social pour le cinéma marocain (tendance réaliste), un héros national (tendance épique) pour le cinéma algérien et un héros mélodramatique pour le cinéma égyptien (tendance romantique). » (id., p. 17).

 

Dans un passage consacré à la figure de la femme dans le cinéma marocain, le critique énumère quatre fonctions : « l’épouse soumise, la mère dévouée, la jeune fille rebelle et la prostituée. » (id., p. 167). 

Ce colloque propose de réfléchir sur la manière de filmer les actes routiniers des femmes, cette réalité ordinaire que les cinéastes transposent à l’écran. Il vise principalement à éclairer sur les gestes cinématographiques adoptés pour filmer les corps féminins, les gestes routiniers des femmes ménagères en cuisine, dans le salon.

 

Ce colloque tentera de répondre aux questions suivantes: comment l’espace cinématographique est-il filmé ? Comment les lieux traditionnels occupés par les femmes et les hommes sont-ils filmés ? Quels sont les rôles masculins/féminins dans cet espace ? Les imaginaires sont-ils décrits de manière objective ? Qu’en est-il des plans utilisés, du son, de la narration, du montage, etc. ? Sont-ils réfléchis et liés à la société ou calqués sur autre modèle ? Comment cet espace cinématographique a-t-il été investi par le cinéma, qu’il s’agisse de l’espace citadin ou de l’espace rural ? De même, pour le désert et son infinitude, comment a-t- il été capté pour les cinéastes ?

 

Axe 2 : Représentations de la féminité : polyphonie et mutations des regards 

Raconter le réel de manière fidèle n’est pas toujours une tâche confortable pour un cinéaste qui se confronte à une réception de plus en plus populaire. L’artiste, qu’il soit acteur ou réalisateur/scénariste, peut moins librement s’exprimer sans risquer sa vie, celle de son entourage. Le film Les Yeux secs (2003) de Narjiss Nejjar, accueilli chaleureusement par les spectateurs au Festival de Cannes, donne un regard négatif sur les femmes et sur leur rôle dans la société marocaine. L’Enfant endormi (2004) de Yasmine Kassari met en lumière l’image de la femme passive qui attend le retour d’un mari – qui ne revient jamais – pour accoucher.

 

Dans une série télévisée projetée cette année pendant le mois de Ramadan et dont l’audience bat tous les records de l’année, on nous raconte l’histoire d’un homme déçu par sa femme qui n’est attirée que par son argent. Celui-ci décide alors de se marier une deuxième fois, puis une troisième fois... 

On note tout de même que dans certaines séries, on est passé de l’espace domestique (chambre, salon, patio, jardin...) à un espace de travail comme l’hôpital, le bureau, le supermarché, le café...

 

Axe 3 : La critique cinématographique et audiovisuelle

 

Il existe peu de revues connues et accessibles à tous les cinéphiles comme il existe peu de critiques femmes dans les revues de cinéma et/ou d’audiovisuel. Les revues, si elles existent, sont semestrielles ou annuelles et sont souvent le fruit de l’effort personnel d’un corps professoral académique et universitaire.

 

La critique cinématographique au Maroc est dominée par les hommes. Rares sont les femmes qui acceptent d’intégrer un groupement de critiques cinéphiles. On peut citer quelques exceptions dans les clubs de cinéma : Amina Sibari, Leila Charadi et d’autres. La majorité de ces femmes ont une formation universitaire de haut niveau. Elles écrivent car elles sont passionnées. Elles écrivent car elles sont engagées pour la cause féminine. Elles sont parfois responsables de festivals, enseignantes, pharmaciennes...

 

Les formations dans le domaine de la critique cinématographique et audiovisuelle restent dominées par la théorie. Les cours sont assurés par des universitaires autodidactes, du fait que les formations doctorales sur le cinéma et l’audiovisuel viennent de naître dans l’espace universitaire.

 

Axe 4 : Femmes derrière la caméra au cinéma et à la télévision

Qui mieux qu’une femme pourrait parler des représentations féminines dans le champ audiovisuel marocain et des images véhiculées par ce médium ?

Fatima Loukili est une scénariste ; elle a endossé des responsabilités à la télévision et à la Commission d’Aide et de Soutien à la production au Centre Cinématographique Marocain (CCM). En compagnie de Farida Benlyazid, elle a été scénariste et actrice du film Ruses de femmes.

 

La scénariste et réalisatrice Bouchra Malak représente, quant à elle, la nouvelle génération de cinéastes femmes. Cette génération, à l’instar de ces prédécesseurs, est porteuse de nouveaux projets. Elle cherche le renouveau. Elle est formée dans les universités marocaines, les instituts et les écoles de cinéma. La jeune productrice Fadila Taha, à titre d’exemple, est formée à l’université. Asma El Moudir, primée récemment à Cannes, l’est également.

 

D’autres femmes dont les films portent sur la cause féminine sont très engagées : Meryem Benm’Barek, scénariste et réalisatrice de Sofia, Maryam Touzani, membre du jury de la Compétition officielle du prestigieux Festival de Cannes de cette année, scénariste et réalisatrice de Adam et Le Bleu du caftan.

 

Au Maroc, le métier de scénariste reste toutefois peu connu. Le scénario est la structure profonde du récit filmique. C’est la base de toute production audiovisuelle. Malheureusement, rares sont les femmes qui écrivent pour la télévision et le cinéma. Les formations en écriture de scénario sont absentes. On doit s’expatrier à l’étranger (États-Unis ou Europe) pour poursuivre une formation de qualité.

 

Bouchra Malak, scénariste et réalisatrice de la série Bnat Lassas (« Les filles du gardien ») distribuée dans le monde arabe, a connu un grand succès au Maroc pendant le mois sacré de Ramadan. Elle donne une image positive des femmes. À l’instar de ce qui est procédé dans les séries turques, elle montre des actrices qui incarnent des rôles positifs (médecin, infirmière...). Dans ces films, la femme n’est ni sorcière, ni mégère, ni prostituée, elle est belle et intelligente.

 

En somme, la présence des femmes à la télévision, dans le scénario, la réalisation, le son, la production et la distribution est forte, plus que jamais. Ce médium proche du public n’est-il pas un moyen de rapprocher le spectateur de sa propre image et de son vécu routinier et quotidien ? la forte consommation des séries turques à la télévision n’est-elle pas la preuve que le public est là et que son intelligence est à respecter, à considérer, voire à cultiver et à revaloriser ? 

Ce colloque constituera également l’occasion de réfléchir sur les métiers de la distribution et de la production : qu’en est-il au Maroc, la femme est-elle présente ? Qu’en est- il des films produits par des femmes ? Ont-ils un impact sur la place des femmes dans la société marocaine ? Bien évidemment nous prévoyons aussi un espace de discussion pour des lectures comparatives, ce sera l’occasion de projeter autrement chacun des axes du colloque. Qu’en est- il des cultures semblables ou différentes a priori de celles propres à l’espace marocain ? Quelles singularités, dans ces autres cultures, caractérisent la présence et l’action des femmes au cinéma, à l’écran et dans l’ensemble des métiers afférents ? Quels éclairages ou quels rétro- éclairages ces singularités apportent-ils aux interrogations à propos de la place de la femme dans le cinéma marocain, etc.? Il nous semble nécessaire que les biais de généricité soient interrogés ici. Et si cela est observable, quel serait, en l’occurrence, l’apport de tels biais à la définition et à la description du système général du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel au féminin ?

 

Modalités et calendrier 

Le colloque est ouvert aux chercheurs nationaux et internationaux, aux professionnels des métiers de l’audiovisuel, aux responsables des chaînes de télévision. Les contributions privilégieront les cas d’étude, enquêtes, expériences personnelles des parties prenantes à la réalisation, la production, ainsi que leurs analyses.

 

Chaque proposition devra comporter le nom et l’adresse e-mail de l’auteur, sa discipline et son institution (université, société...). 

Délai de réception des résumés : 20 décembre 2023

-  Les propositions sont à envoyer à cette adresse : colloquecinema.aufeminin@gmail.com

-  Les auteurs ayant soumis des propositions recevront une réponse au plus tard le 20 janvier 
2024.

-  Le colloque est prévu les 18 et 19 avril 2024 à la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences 
Humaines de l’Université Cadi Ayyad de Marrakech.

-  Un dispositif de communication en ligne sera mis en place pour les auteurs qui ne pourront 
pas se déplacer.

-  Les communications, d’une durée de 20 minutes, pourront être prononcées en arabe, en 
français, en anglais ou en espagnol.

-  Le texte définitif, d’une longueur comprise entre 50 000 et 60 000 signes, doit être envoyé 
avant le 30 juin 2024 à l’adresse suivante : colloquecinema.aufeminin@gmail.com

-  Les textes nécessitant des révisions seront renvoyés à leurs auteurs pour des ajustements 
et un retour avant le 30 septembre 2024.

-  Les actes du colloque seront publiés dans la revue IMIST-CNRST du laboratoire 
LIMPACT.

 

Comité scientifique 

Driss Ablali (Université de Lorraine) ; Mouad Adham (UCA. FLSHM); Youssef Ait Hammou (Université Cadi Ayyad. Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines) ; Lalla Khadija Yousfi Alaoui (UCA. FLSHM) ; Karima Benelbida (UCA. FSSM) ; Ayoub Bouhouhou (UCA. FLSHM) ; Samir Bouzrara (UCA. FLSHM) ; Roland Carrée (ÉSAV Marrakech) ; Estelle Epinoux, Université de (UCA. FLSHM) ; Limoges, Abdelhaï Sadiq (UCA. FLSHM) ; Claude Forest (Université de Strasbourg) ; Fatima Zohra Iflahen (UCA. FLSHM) ; Anass Motia (UCA. FLSHM) ; Didier Tsala (Université de Limoges). 

Comité d’organisation

 

Professeurs : Khadija Alaoui, Karima Benlbida, Ayoub Bouhouhou,

Doctorants : Zahra Belkouki ; Adam Ghannab (UCA. FLSHM); Hind Ibaachen (UCA. FLSHM); Fadila Taha (UCA. FLSHM)

African Women's Cinematic Storytelling through Sports: Empowering women and girls, raising awareness

African Women's Cinematic Storytelling through Sports:

Empowering women and girls, raising awareness

Report by Beti Ellerson

Sport has demonstrated its enormous capacity to propel women and girls’ empowerment. It mobilizes the global community and speaks to youth. It unites across national barriers and cultural differences. It is a powerful tool to convey important messages in a positive and celebratory environment – often to mass audiences. In addition, it teaches women and girls the values of teamwork, self-reliance and resilience; has a multiplier effect on their health, education and leadership development; contributes to self-esteem, builds social connections, and challenges harmful gender norms.

Many actors in the sport ecosystem are making significant strides to advance gender equality. For example, organizations are developing their sport at the grassroots level for women and girls; implementing gender equality strategies; creating their safeguarding policies; increasing the participation of women in leadership and at all levels of the profession; increasing resource allocation for women’s sports; doing better and more media coverage; marketing free from gender bias and promoting women’s achievements.

Furthermore, sport in its most basic form encourages balanced participation and has the capacity to promote gender equality (Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). Through sport and physical activity, women and girls can be empowered and benefit from the positive impact that sport has on health and psychosocial conditions.

Female participation in sport also challenges stereotypes and social roles commonly associated with women. Sport can help women and girls demonstrate their talents and achievements to society by emphasizing their skills and abilities. This, in turn, improves self-esteem and self-confidence in women participants. Sport also offers opportunities for social interaction and friendship, which can raise awareness of gender roles among male counterparts and convey social and psychological benefits to both individuals and groups.

Source: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/3/news-sport-for-generation-equality

African women in cinema are active participants in the empowerment and promotion of women and girls in sport as they direct their cameras towards the collective stories through documentary and fiction of the journeys of women and girls through sport.

Florence Ayisi's Zanzibar Soccer Queens offers a fascinating insight into women and sport in the majority Muslim population of Zanzibar, especially as it relates to culturally defined roles for women and their bodies.

Similarly, Oufsaiyed Elkhortoum (Khartoum Offside) by Marwa Zein, focuses on the dreams of Sara and her sport-loving friends who hope one day to form a Sudanese national soccer team and participate in the FIFA Women's World Cup, despite the fact that this image does not fit the Muslim society’s traditional image of a woman.

In the same way, Naziha Arebi's Freedom Fields traces the hopes of a team of women in post-revolution Libya, as soccer is the metaphor for empowerment and struggle.

Mayye Zayed's Ash Ya Captain | Lift Like a Girl is a coming of age story of 14-year-old Zebiba as she goes from victories to defeats, in pursuit of her dream to become a professional weightlifter.

Similarly, La Boxeuse | Boxing Girl by Iman Djionne follows the adventures of 17-year-old Adama after finding a pair of red boxing gloves.

Jessie Chisi's boxing story, Between Rings: The Esther Phiri Story focuses on her cousin a champion woman boxer, "torn between marriage and career because she could not have both worlds as one conflicted with the other".

In addition, women pursue nontraditional area such as motorcycling, which is the focus on Joan Kabugu's Throttle Queens.

Moreover, women's sport's movies include the stories of triumph by boys and men who pursue sport despite physical challenges. For instance, Yveline Nathalie Pontalier's film project about a team of deaf soccer players and Ngardy Conteh's documentary about an amputee soccer team of child survivors of the civil war in Sierra Leone.

These and other cinematic stories are among the posts on the African Women in Cinema Blog highlighting African women's storytelling through sports:

Boxing. Iman Djionne: La Boxeuse | Boxing Girl
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/02/festival-films-femmes-afrique-2020_17.html
 

Boxing. Jessie Chisi: Between Rings
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/jessie-chisi-talks-about-between-rings.html
 

Soccer. Naziha Arebi: Freedom Fields
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/09/naziha-arebi-freedom-fields-afrika-film.html
 

Soccer. Florence Bamba: Numero 10
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/01/recent-films-florence-bamba-numero-10.html
 

Soccer. Florence Ayisi: Soccer Queens
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/06/florence-ayisis-soccer-queens.html
 

Soccer. Marwa Zein: Oufsaiyed Elkhortoum | Khartoum Offside
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/01/oufsaiyed-elkhortoum-khartoum-offside.html
 

Weightlifting. Mayye Zayed: Ash Ya Captain | Lift Like a Girl
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/08/mayye-zayed-ash-ya-captain-lift-like.html
 

Motorcycling. Joan Kabugu: Throttle Queens
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/11/joan-kabugu-throttle-queens.html
 

Running. Amleset Muchie
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/02/nyaff-2021-amleset-muchie.html
 

Women and girls' empowerment
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/06/african-women-make-soccer-movies.html
 

Differently-abled - Child Soldiers
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/11/world-premiere-flying-stars-by-ngardy.html
 

Resistance - Revolution
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/09/rama-thiaw-young-filmmaker-in-struggle.html
 

Deaf culture
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/01/yveline-nathalie-pontalier-lance-une.html
 

Conflict resolution
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/02/fespaco-2013-rumbi-katedza-team-l.html
 

African Women in Cinema addressing the effects of globalization, glocalization, internationalization and other global matters

African Women in Cinema addressing the effects of globalization, glocalization, internationalization and other global matters

"…we have to make sacrifices in order to live in this world…we have to know that our own behavior will affect generations to come.”--Wanuri Kahiu

"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."--Julie Djikey
 

"Unemployed, without hope, and many looking to leave the country for want of better options… Young men are swelling the ranks of gangs that sow violence in Zinder, my home town, in Niger….They style themselves after black American hotshots from the ghettos: heavy chains around their necks, T-shirts bearing images of Hollywood stars, strutting around in low-slung faded jeans. They make themselves known in various spectacular, and sometimes tragic, ways, feeding the climate of fear and hysteria in Zinder."--Aicha Macky

Migrancy and displacement: African women of the moving image have a particular concern for the plight of the migrant, heightened by the dramatic impact of migrancy and its consequences and effects in many African countries.

Links to articles on the African Women in Cinema Blog addressing global matters and their impact on Africa and Africans

Wanuri Kahiu: Afrofuturism
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2012/09/wanuri-kahiu-afrofuturism-and-african.html

Julie Djikey: Ozonisation
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/04/julie-djikey-performance-ozonisation.html

 

Africa Women Cinema and Migrancy
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/04/african-women-cinema-migrancy.html

 

Traveling gazes: Glocal imaginaries in the transcontinental, transnational, exilic, migration and diaspora cinematic experiences of African women
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/05/black-camera-spring-2017-beti-ellerson.html

 

Hawa Essuman: Silas Deby
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/02/fespaco-2019-silas-deby-hawa-essuman.html

 

Pascale Gaby Serra: Zone III
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/06/mis-me-binga-2018-pascale-gaby-serra.html

 

Mame Woury Thioubou: 5 étoiles
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/11/mame-woury-thioubou-5-etoiles-un-recit.html

Randi Maroufi: Bab Sebta
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/vues-dafrique-2021-randi-maroufi-bab.html

Aicha Macky: Zinder
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/aicha-macky-zinder.html