Togolese Women in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

Togolese Women in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

"I have always been interested in women's discourse, because I think it is an alternative discourse.  I have always treated my themes from the perspective of women."--Anne-Laure Folly Reimann

The creation of the Lomé-based African Film Festival of Women Filmmakers (Festival Africain des Films de Femmes Cinéastes (FAFFCI)) in 2018 offered an environment for the promotion and empowerment of Togolese women in cinema on a national level, thus providing a structure for the cultural work by women filmmakers that has spanned several decades. The first edition of the festival activities included conferences, panels, consciousness raising sessions, a contest of documentary and fiction films made by all-women film crews, and a Masterclass entitled: “Mentoring women filmmakers for the advancement of the industry.” Similar to other women's film festivals throughout the continent, the festival is an essential structure for networking and building environments for women's empowerment.

Since the 1990s international lawyer-filmmaker-activist Anne-Laure Folly-Reimann has been actively involved in the organization and development of African cinema culture at the continental and international levels. Sitou Ayité, critique, producer, scriptwriter and filmmaker, wears many hats in Togolese film culture. Since 2009 founder Christelle Aquéréburu is also director of the Togolese film school Ecran, laying the groundwork for the formation of a cadre of audio-visual professionals. Since 2010, Juliette Akouvi Founou oversees the many activities of the Association Togolaise du Cinéma Numérique Ambulant (ATCNA), as president of the digital mobile cinema association. In April 2021 ATCNA launched a call for candidates for a writing residency for short films targeting young francophone women creatives-filmmakers, under the theme "The Woman in Contemporary Africa. This initiative reinforces the long-standing objective of African women stakeholders in cinema: to empower women through training and mentoring.

Author-filmmaker Gentille M. Assih's film Into the Light, about domestic violence, highlights the liberating life stories of Quebecois women of West African origin. Berlin-based German-Togolese Ines Johnson Spain focuses her camera on her personal story. In Becoming Black a girl discovers her true identity, that of a mixed race adolescent.

In addition to an interest in producing realistic stories about everyday African experiences to present to the African public, Angela Aquéréburu wants also to distribute her films more broadly in order to make them visible on the international scene. She explains in ForbesAfrica: "To make content exportable, you need a universal story, good actors, beautiful images, good music and to respect international broadcast codes.” She co-founded the Lomé-based Yobo Studios to provide original and exportable programs and bring a different perspective regarding Africa.

Jahëna Louisin, who holds a Masters in International Relations and Political Science, is a journalist reporter of the visual image for local production companies and international televisions and has lived in Togo since a child. Behind her camera, she immortalizes life stories drawing inspiration from daily life, both tender and harsh, to imagine human stories with universal appeal.

These Togolese women are among the growing cohort of filmmakers and film activist who contribute to the vibrancy of a cinema culture in the country.

Report by Beti Ellerson

Links to articles on the African Women in Cinema Blog:

Gentille M. Assih: Into the Light
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/vues-dafrique-2021-gentille-m-assih.html

La femme dans l'Afrique Moderne - CNA Cinéma Numérique Ambulant TOGO  | The Woman in Contemporary Africa
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/la-femme-dans-lafrique-moderne-cna.html

Festival Films Femmes Afrique 2020 - Jahëna Louisin : 28 jours (28 days)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/02/festival-films-femmes-afrique-2020_71.html

Ines Johnson Spain: Becoming Black
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/12/ines-johnson-spain-becoming-black.html

Festival Africain des Films de Femmes Cinéastes (FAFFCI) | African Film Festival of Women Filmmakers - 2018 (Togo)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/03/festival-africain-des-films-de-femmes.html

Angela Aquereburu : Producing realistic, original, universal African stories | Produire des histories africaines authentiques, originales, universelles
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2017/10/angela-aquereburu-producing-realistic.html

Christelle Aquéréburu, Directrice de l’ECRAN - Ecole de cinéma au Togo | Director of ECRAN film school in Togo
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/04/christelle-aquereburu-directrice-de.html

Angéla Aquereburu lance une campagne de crowdfunding sur Indiegogo pour la série "Palabres" | Angéla Aquereburu launchs a crowfunding campaign on Indiegogo for the "Palabres" series
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/03/angela-aquereburu-lance-une-campagne-de.html

Juliette Akouvi Founou : "The CNA Togo is in its launching phase"
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2013/05/juliette-akouvi-founou-cna-togo-is-in.html

Anne-Laure Folly: African women's voices as alternative discourse. Reflections on the film "Les Oubliées"
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/07/anne-laure-folly-les-oubliees.html

A Conversation with Angéla Aquereburu
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/05/conversation-with-angela-aquereburu.html

Anne-Laure Folly: African Women's Voices as Alternative Discourse. Reflections on the film Les Oubliées

Anne-Laure Folly: African women's voices as alternative discourse. Reflections on the film Les Oubliées

From the African Women in Cinema Archives

Anne-Laure Folly
Togo
Les Oubliées
Documentary - 1996 - 53min

Excerpts from interview with Anne Laure Folly, held at the 15th FESPACO, February 1997, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. First published in Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television. Beti Ellerson (Africa World Press, 2000).

"I have always been interested in women's discourse, because I think it is an alternative discourse.  I have always treated my themes from the perspective of women."

"Initially the idea was to talk about war, to make a plea for peace.  In analyzing situations of extreme war, I had a choice because there are many extreme situations throughout the world.  I chose one of the longest wars of the century, the war in Angola.  It has lasted thirty years, for the last thirty years: the people have been fighting.  The purpose was to have an alternative discourse, one that was not simply based on the reasons for war—which always seem to be legitimate; nor one that is filled with dates or simple facts."

"I tried rather to treat the problem of war from the women's perspectives.  Their perspective does not simply analyze things; they live them.  That is what I proposed as my initial premise, and it was filmed along that line.  In fact, the women that I encountered told me things about the history of the country that had nothing at all to do with what we know of the history of their country."

"It is not only about women, it is a plea for peace, and I treated war not through the ordinary perspective that we have about the facts and events, the battles and territorial gains, but rather from a perspective that is specific.  Women have a different perspective about this history, especially of a war that has lasted more than thirty years.  They experienced the war based on personal suffering, having lost people they know, and sensing the impossibility of being able to provide a future.  They live this history from another point of reference and I found this interesting."

"I decided to not approach this plea for peace from an intellectual level, because we are all for peace.  I wanted to hear it from people who spoke from the guts about their fears.  We respond more radically for peace, but within the reflection, "really this violence has to stop."  The film comes more so from the guts, reason should not be the basis for bringing up the problems of the world, because reason is not sufficient to change things."

[Why the topic on the war in Angola?]  "It is an exemplary war, not only for Africa but also for the world. It is nearly the longest war of the century; it has lasted for the last thirty years. There is an entire generation, which only knows extreme violence.  There are people who live in a world where morals do not exist, where in the absence of morals the only rule is: To survive you must kill. I also find it interesting because it was a war that took all forms.  Initially it was a war to end colonization and then an East-West conflict involving Cuba and South Africa, and afterwards a civil war.  Perhaps there were several motives for the war but, nonetheless, it continued to be one group fighting against another, which leads one to believe that the motive had only one interest at stake, which was war itself."

"I think that [women] bring another discourse, I am not saying that women view the world differently, but they do not have the same social function in society. The women in the countries where there is war are all victims. They participate in the war to assist in the survival of their children, sons, and husbands, but that is all, and then they lose them. Yet, they do not actually participate. In the film, there was a woman who said, "One day I was in the war zone and I saw the Cubans coming." This was an amazing image of a woman who did not know what was going on. She has been wandering around the country for the past ten years. I think these perspectives bring about another appreciation of the world, of values, and I am always for another discourse."

At the press conference for Les Oubliées:

Sarah Maldoror speaks from audience: "The first point that I want to make to Anne-Laure Folly is that your film is outstanding, it is fantastic. Because you are a woman, you have the respect for life, because you have courage.  You could have been blown up a hundred times in those mines, but you were not, thank God.  I think that you had courage to do this film.  And it is very well done, and it gives one something to think about.  And that these women who fight and suffer, who are hungry, could actually do a theatrical play, I find extraordinary.  I regret that there are not more women who can be here to participate in this peace effort.  Because if we women do not do it, it will not be the other African filmmakers, who, alas, are not at this conference…"

Anne-Laure Folly: "I would like first to thank Sarah, she inspired me to do this film.  She did a film called Sambizanga, which in my opinion is one of the masterpieces of African cinema.  When I saw it, I had a desire to make a film thirty years later, about Angola.  She cleared the way by showing the Angolan war interpreted from the perspective of a woman.  Mine is not a pioneering approach; she has already done that."

Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l’utopie

Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l’utopie is Anne-Laure Folly’s tribute to her mentor: Sarah Maldoror’s enduring political struggle for the freedom of all people, her affirmation of her négritude and the recognition of black poets and artists, permeates her work.

Anne-Laure Folly Reimann

Anne-Laure Folly, who studied law at the University of Paris II-Panthéon-Assas in Paris, worked for a long time as a legal adviser for UNESCO. She began making films in the early 1990s, her work strongly inspired by Sarah Maldoror, as well as Safi Faye. Anne-Laure Folly has shared her time between cinema and a career as an international lawyer specializing in issues concerning Africa. She has directed twenty documentaries with a focus on socio-political issues in Africa. She was elected to the office of FEPACI, the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers in 1997 and in 2006, until 2013 she was the regional secretary.

African Women in Cinema Take the Torch

The first generation of African cinema has passed the torch to a second and third generation of filmmakers. A cinema born in the 1950s and 60s, known for its postcolonial themes, directly confronted the oppressive nature and contradictions of colonialism. 

Among this second and third generation are women who have drawn important lessons from their elders.

Some of these women take the torch from their mothers, fathers and uncles, others have relit or are keeping the torch burning to shine light on the accomplishments of those who have come before them.

Anne-Laure Folly Reimann of Togo pays homage to the life and works of the matriarch of African cinema, Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020). French-Guadeloupian of African descent, she has had a long presence in filmmaking in Africa. Having studied cinema in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, after a short stay in Morocco in 1963, she went to Algeria to work as Gillo Pontecorvo’s assistant for the production of the classic film, The Battle of Algiers. Her debut film Monangambee, was selected at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival under the Quinzaine des réalisateurs/Directors' Fortnight representing Angola. In 1972 she made Sambizanga, considered her masterpiece; a film about a woman's experience during the Angolan liberation struggle. In her documentary, Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l'utopie, Folly Reimann pays tribute to Maldoror, having followed the path that she forged. Some twenty-five years after the release of the film Sambizanga, she too highlights women's experiences of war in Angola, in the film Les Oubliées (1996). Daughters Annouchka de Andrade and Henda Ducados have opened Sarah's archives for research and study with the aim of making their mother’s work visible to an international public. Annouchka, herself a film activist and organizer, keeps Sarah’s legacy alive through interviews, speeches and conferences dedicated to her mother. Also see the African Women in Cinema Blog post that features their reflections on their mother during a tribute to her.

Gyasiwa Ansah of Ghana follows in the footsteps of her father, veteran filmmaker Kwaw Ansah. She grew up in cinema often present on her father's film shoots. As she grew older she began to take on duties on the set and finally decided to go to film school. She continues to work with her father at his television production company, TV Africa.

French-Congolese Claude Haffner, takes the torch from her late father, Pierre Haffner, an important French voice in African cinema criticism. Her 2001 DEA (Master's) thesis, Le documentaire africain, un remède éventuel aux maux dont souffre le cinéma africain? loosely translates as "The African Documentary as Possible Remedy to the Ills of African Cinema." In addition, she has taken on the role of filmmaker. Her documentary, D'une fleur double et de quatre mille d'autres (2005), a tribute to her father, is situated at the intersection of her double passion--criticism and filmmaking--focusing on many of the issues that he confronted in his work on African cinema. Her autobiographical documentary, Footprints of my Other 2012), is about her place “in between”, Africa and Europe, as she searches for her Congolese roots.

Rahmatou Keïta of Niger rekindles the flame of a once fledgling film industry. The vibrant works of the prolific filmmakers of Niger beginning in the mid-1960s are a mere footnote in African cinema history. Weaving the story of pioneer actress Zalika Souley, Keïta relates a parallel story, the history of the early cinema of Niger. Her purpose for making the film Al’leessi...An African Actress (2004), was to celebrate the elders of Niger cinema and elevate them to their rightful place as cinematic pioneers.

Mati Diop, born within an artistic milieu--her mother is a photographer, her father is musician Wasis Diop, and her late uncle, Djibril Diop Mambety (1945-1998), a giant of African Cinema--works quite naturally within the domain of sound and image. Her evolution into cinema was a result of her interest in the image rather than a direct influence of her uncle, Djibril; though she gradually understood that his legacy is an important force in her work. Her film 1000 Soleils/1000 Suns (one may recall La petite vendeuse de Soleil/The Little Girl who Sold the Sun, Mambety's last film released posthumously in 1999), is dedicated to him--tracing the incredible journey of the cult film, Touki Bouki, his masterpiece. The film made in 1973, nine years before Mati's birth, is a means to better understand her uncle. In her view, the film is fundamentally about him, in a very profound way. When making her first film Last Night, she was not yet aware of the cinematic inheritance of Djibril. She has recently embraced this bond which has increasingly imposed itself as she has become more confident in her work. But for Mati this inheritance only becomes important when she has her own work to show for it.

Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu, passionate about the preservation of Ghana's cinematic history, meticulously researched the evolution of Ghanaian cinema, documenting it in the film Perished Diamonds.

Sara Gubara journeyed into cinema through her father’s footsteps and as a team they directed more than 40 films. The pioneer of Sudanese cinema, Gadalla Gubara created his own company, Gad Studios, after managing the mobile cinema of the Sudanese Ministry of Information. Through his indefatigable efforts, single handedly he forged a Sudanese cinema infrastructure, producing some 300 documentaries. However, in 1998, Gadalla’s sudden blindness thrust Sara into the forefront. At her father’s side, she became his eyes: “On the film, I work as his eyes. Sometimes we argue about some things but still, we cooperate well together.”

Malika Franklin co-directed and co-edited Woman to Woman (2013) with her mother, Véronique N. Doumbé.

Alice Diop received the 70th Jean Vigo Award, for Saint Omer. A French film prize presented since 1951. In 1966, the award was presented to her illustrious Senegalese ancestor, Ousmane Sembene, for the pioneering film, La Noire de..., also relating an unsettling story of an African woman living in France, as the main protagonist. She takes the torch moving forward.

Thus, accepting the torch passed on from the generation before, means that one must assume the task of continuing the work forged by the elders.

Updated 25 October 2022: