AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA BLOG: Annette Mbaye d'Erneville

The purpose of the African Women in Cinema Blog is to provide a space to discuss diverse topics relating to African women in cinema--filmmakers, actors, producers, and all film professionals. The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.

Le Blog sur les femmes africaines dans le cinéma est un espace pour l'échange d'informations concernant les réalisatrices, comédiennes, productrices, critiques et toutes professionnelles dans ce domaine. Ceci sert de forum public du Centre pour l'étude et la recherche des femmes africaines dans le cinémas.

Showing posts with label Annette Mbaye d'Erneville. Show all posts

12 March 2021

African Women Journalists: Critical Engagements in African Cinemas

African Women Journalists: Critical Engagements in African Cinemas

Image: Poster of Mère-bi, a film by Ousmane William Mbaye

At the eve of African cinemas south of the Sahara, African women journalists have been at the forefront of film criticism and activism in the development of a cinema culture on the continent and the diaspora.

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.

Throughout the continent a cohort of women are actively engaged in film journalism following the footsteps of these 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

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

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

21 September 2010

La Grande Dame: Annette Mbaye d'Erneville: Mère-bi

Poster of Mère-bi (2009) a film about Annette Mbaye d'Erneville by Ousmane William Mbaye

Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, veteran journalist, communications specialist, media activist, critic and writer, is the pioneer of Senegalese media culture. Born in the Sokone region of Senegal in 1926, she studied in Paris in the late 1940s where she immediately plunged into the intellectual life of the 1950s and was actively involved in the African independence movement. The first Senegalese to earn a degree in journalism, she returns to Senegal in 1957 to serve her country.

Avid 'womanist", deeply proud of her culture, she is the founder and director of the Maison de la Femme Henriette Bathily (The Henriette Bathily Women’s House) located on Gorée Island, Senegal, created in 1994. She 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.

Reflecting on the role of women as cultural producers, she declares: "The goal is to allow women to express themselves, to be witnesses to their era and to reflect a realistic image of Africa in their own lives."

Madame Annette Mbaye d’Erneville carries with aplomb the name that her son, Ousmane William Mbaye attributes to her in Mére-bi, a documentary film that he made about her life. Below is a French to English translation of an interview with him regarding the film, along with the video clip from TV5Monde.

Translation from French by Beti Ellerson

Patrick Simonin TV5Monde: Ousmane William Mbaye, Senegalese filmmaker, has made a documentary film about his own mother. Welcome to the show.

This film is dedicated to your own mother, why devote an entire film to this amazing Senegalese personage?

Ousmane William Mbaye: It is not just a portrait of my mother, it is a film about the first Senegalese journalist, who is at the same time my mother.

Patrick Simonin: She has always been independent, and she is still with us…

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes she is, knock on wood. And very independent as you stated. But what really interested me was her journey. Here is a woman who has lived through three generations, who fought for the emancipation of women, who was a media innovator, who initiated the first center for women. She has the mindset of openness and tolerance, which has been fascinating for me.

Patrick Simonin: Ten years to make this film about Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, we will see excerpts of the film, and in its entirety tomorrow on TV5Monde. She opened up to you…

Ousmane William Mbaye: She opened up to me, in spite of herself. I filmed her during a ten-year period with my video camera, though at the beginning she did not take me seriously. I have 150 hours of footage, scenes and sequences that no one else could have had. Because of my proximity and intimacy with her, I could have real situations.

Patrick Simonin: Let’s look at the atmosphere in the film…

Annette Mbaye d’Erneville: “I was raised with a great deal of affection…at 9 years old I did not speak a word of French, at home my aunt taught me how to read, as I spoke impeccable Wolof, amid this mix-raced milieu of St. Louis…”

Patrick Simonin: It is a family album and at the same time the history of Senegal, as well as the history of an Africa fighting for its existence.

Ousmane William Mbaye: It is a history of an Africa that stands tall, of its fight for independence, (as we are speaking about its 50th year of independence), of this generation of men and women. She was not alone, there is an entire generation that forged it. Hence, they have a mentality of “fighters”, though perhaps at present they are older and perhaps a bit weaker, they continue.

Patrick Simonin: She enters this colonial world and liberates herself. She goes to Paris and discovers for the first time that she can be served by white women in the cafés.

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes, during the colonial period, the image of white people was as superior. When she arrives in Paris in the late 40s among which are other African students, she finds that there are white people who are street-sweepers, waiters in the cafes and and most important for her, that there are white people who are not racist, there was a type of harmony.

Patrick Simonin: There were white people who were not part of this cadre of colonialist, and for her there is a feeling of harmony…

Ousmane William Mbaye: There is the intellectual movement in France in the 1950s whose members are both white and African.

Patrick Simonin: She meets Senghor and becomes part of a group…which becomes a kind of Africa outside of Africa.

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes, they created the Federation of African Students in France. And these students return to Africa in 1957 to become part of the African independence movements.

Patrick Simonin: She also becomes involved in music and dance…

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes, there is not a barrier between the intellectualism and culture, she meets Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Sartre and Senghor, it was this type of harmony. I wanted to show in 2010 how Africans lived in Europe in the 1950s. I think there are important memories to preserve and show.

Patrick Simonin: It’s outstanding! We will return to watch some images from the film. You stated that she, among others, saw the importance of returning to their country.

Ousmane William Mbaye: She uses the expression: “to serve my country”. This was a generation who believed in the development of Africa. Rather than stay in Europe, no, they wanted to return to Africa, to Senegal to develop it. I want the young people of Africa today to have this same sentiment.

Patrick Simonin: Thus to serve, and to remember. We see in these images that she has been rewarded for her efforts, for all of Africa. This is an extraordinary woman, she is a role model.

Ousmane William Mbaye: I want to also say that I did not make the film alone, a few others were involved, though we were not many. Laurence Attali was the editor and co-producer of the film, she brought a great deal to the project, as well as musician Doudou Doukouré…

Patrick Simonin: But was it not she who brought the most, she is being herself. You filmed it in a certain way. You followed her as she lived from day to day.

Ousmane William Mbaye: I followed her, she had to endure the constant presence of my camera. And there were moments also when she forgot about the camera. When I wanted to put on the lavaliere she resisted.

Patrick Simonin: She is still a rebel.

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes, she is still a rebel, still active with the Henriette Bathily Women’s House and its exhibitions.

Patrick Simonin: She continues forward, and TV5Monde will present these beautiful images of her. The film is called Mere-bi, The Mother. It has won international prizes…So you feel this is Africa?

Ousmane William Mbaye: Yes, she is the role model for Africa…

Patrick Simonin: And women…

Ousmane William Mbaye: And for women. Because African women as they are viewed in the West do not conform to their reality…

13 April 2009

Recidak '96 : Quand les femmes du cinéma se mobilisent | When women of cinema take action

Des archives de Recidak | From the Recidak archives: Recidak '96 : Quand les femmes du cinéma se mobilisent | When women of cinema take action

[Français] Read English version below

Extrait du report par Cheriff Amadou Diop. Ecrans d’Afrique, no. 16, 1996

La 7ème édition des Rencontres Cinématographiques de Dakar (Recidak) organisée du 26 juin au 2 juillet, marquait le clap de fin pour l'ancienne formule. Selon les propos mêmes de sa présidente, Madame Annette Mbaye d'Erneville, le Consortium de la Communication Audiovisuel en Afrique (Cca), qui a créé cette manifestation, va en effet céder sa gestion et son organisation au ministère sénégalais de la communication, en partenariat avec tous les acteurs du cinéma du Sénégal…

…L’intention affichée par les autorités du pays est de rendre les Recidak plus professionnelles, partant plus efficaces dans la défense et la promotion du cinéma sénégalais ainsi que dans la participation au développement du cinéma africain. En clair, il faut s’attendre à une redéfinition de la périodicité et des orientations des Recidak à partir de la 8ème édition. Loin d’être un désaveu des initiateurs des Recidak, cette mesure marque une étape nécessaire de l’évolution de la manifestation…

…Créées en 1990, au moment où le cinéma sénégalais traversait une passe difficile, les Recidak s’étaient fixées comme objectif principale la relance de ce cinéma par l’organisation de colloques axés sur la problématique du développement de l’industrie cinématographique nationale. De fait, les trois éditions successives de 1990 à 1993 avaient eu à se pencher sur les thèmes suivants : une industrie pour le cinéma sénégalais ; la production et la promotion des films sénégalais ; la problématique des structures ; le marché du film sénégalais et africain…

…Pour un clap de fin de l’ancienne formule, les Recidak ’96 ne pouvaient trouver un thème plus symbolique : « Femme et cinéma ». Comme pour donner la dernière parole aux femmes professionnelles de l’image afin de tirer le bilan des Recidak et envisager l’avenir du cinéma africain ; mais surtout rendre au hommage mérite a leur doyenne, Madame Annette M’Baye d’Erneville qui, à 70 ans, cède la flambeau à l’Etat. L’atmosphère en la circonstance, était empreinte d’émotion. Les femmes ont du reste bien compris la responsabilité qui leur incombait pour la relance du cinéma africain : tant et si bien qu’à l’occasion du colloque, elles ont débattu de thèmes préoccupants : la place et le rôle de la femme dans le cinéma sénégalais (par Oumarou Diagne) ; tentative d’approche sociologique du cinéma des femmes négro-africaines (par Osange Silou) ; problématique d’une écriture féminine du cinéma « femme et cinéma » (Par Martine Condé Ilboudo) etc. (Ndlr. Le haut niveau des communications livrées par les femmes du cinéma mérite que nous revenions sur le sujet dans un numéro spécial en préparation).

A l’issue du colloque, pour être concrètes, les femmes ont prise une résolution relative aux actions à prendre afin de leur permettre d’occuper « la place qui leur revient aux côtés des autres cinéastes » (création de mécanismes de production destinés aux femmes, organisation d’un atelier itinérant de formation des femmes dans les métiers du cinéma etc.)

Mieux, les femmes réunies à Dakar ont décidé de créer un collectif dénommé « initiative des femmes pour le cinéma » basé sur la solidarité et l’entraide pour l’aboutissement de projets individuels (écriture des scenarios ; soutient logistique, échange d’information, etc.). D’où le slogan désormais célèbre inventé par les femmes à Dakar : quand les femmes du cinéma se mobilisent le cinéma africain bouge. Tout un programme !

[English]

Recidak 96 : Quand les femmes du cinéma se mobilisent | When women of cinema take action.

From the report by Cheriff Amadou Diop. Ecrans d’Afrique, no. 16, 1996

Recidak, created under the auspices of the Consortium of Audiovisual Communication in Africa by Madame Annette Mbaye d’Erneville in 1990, operated independently until 1996.

Recidak ‘96 would be the last version under its current form before being relocated to the Senegalese Ministry of Communication. Hence, there was a bit of symbolism in the theme of this edition: “Women and Cinema”, as if to give the women professionals of cinema the last word, as a way of taking stock of its accomplishments and envisioning the future of the industry. And above all to pay a well-deserved homage to their elder, Madame Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, whose lifetime work has been for the promotion of culture in Senegal. The level of emotion was high, as the women understood the role that they would have to play in moving African cinema forward.

During the colloquy, several themes were addressed: the place and role of women in Senegalese cinema (by Oumarou Diagne); towards a sociological approach to the cinema of Black women (by Osange Silou); problematizing women’s cinematic writing as it relates to “women and cinema” (by Martine Condé Ilboudo), among others. (Editor’s note: the high quality of papers presented by the women in cinema deserves more attention in a special issue in preparation).

At the conclusion of the seminar a resolution was proposed for the creation of a collective, entitled “women’s initiative for cinema” based on solidarity and mutual support for the completion of individual projects (scriptwriting, logistic support, exchange of information, training workshops).

From this meeting comes the slogan—that has since become popular, created by the women in Dakar: “When women of the cinema take action, African cinema moves forward.”

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