Awa Moctar Guèye: Timis (Dusk). Berlinale 2023 Generation Kplus

 Awa Moctar Guèye
Timis (Dusk)

Berlinale Generation Kplus

Senegal - 202" - Fiction - 16min

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202312302.html

Description

At dusk, the spirit world grows bolder. The darkness of the Dakar market where the solitary, slender figure of Pa Kong-Kong dwells, is considered no place for children to venture. But after she draws the white marble signaling her as their new head, Bineta must prove to her peers that girls have the bravery to lead. The shadows stir with ominous sounds. She steps forward determined to reveal a local secret and discovers a new inner confidence.

«Timis parle d’une petite fille de 11 ans, Bineta, qui est amie avec un groupe de 7 enfants. Ils vivent à Nietty Mbar où vit également Pa Konkon qui terrorise les enfants du quartier….Dans cette atmosphère mystérieuse, Bineta est choisie par le sort pour diriger le groupe…Elle relève le défi et en pleine nuit, elle sort pour aller chez Pa Konkong en traversant le marché de Nietty Mbar»

Bio

“"I received my master's degree in 2019 (from Gaston Berger University) and I participated in residencies, with Tenk, with Femis, and with NGOs here in Dakar. Since 2014, I have made 7 documentary and fiction films. Timis is the 8th and it is my first professional film.”

«J’ai eu mon master en 2019 (de Université Gaston Berger) et j’ai fait des résidences, avec Tenk, avec Femis, et avec des Ong ici à Dakar. Depuis 2014, j’ai fait 7 films documentaires et fiction. Timis est le 8e et c’est mon premier film professionnel.» 

Source: https://lequotidien.sn/auteur-de-timis-awa-moctar-gueye-une-cineaste-senegalaise-a-la-berlinale/

Stand up, Stand Tall: The Cinema of Euzhan Palcy - Berlinale Talents Event 2023

Stand up, Stand Tall:

The Cinema of Euzhan Palcy

Berlinale Talents Event 2023

hosted by Claire Diao

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202315306.html

“With my camera I don’t shoot, I heal,” Euzhan Palcy said about her filmmaking philosophy as she accepted an Honorary Oscar last November as a pioneering filmmaker whose groundbreaking significance in international cinema is cemented in film history. Her classic Sugar Cane Alley (1983), selected by Ava DuVernay for this year’s Berlinale Retrospective on Coming of Age, helped put her native Martinique on cinema’s world stage, and went on to win over 17 international prizes. For Euzhan, filmmaking is a mission. Her spirit of collaboration and communication, be it with studio executives, Hollywood icons like Marlon Brando or technicians on set, has allowed her to deal with unpredictable circumstances on various film sets. Always true to her storytelling vision, she has become an inspiration for many, fighting for gender parity, and for a stronger representation of marginalised groups in front of and behind the camera. For the first time with us at the Berlinale, here is a chance not to be missed in joining her on this important journey.

Apolline Traoré: Sira - Berlinale et Fespaco - 2023

Apolline Traoré

Sira

Berlinale et Fespaco - 2023

Berlinale: Panorama Audience Award

Burkina Faso - 100 min - Fiction

The epic film by Apolline Traoré is selected for the Panorama of the Berlinale. The world premiere is February 21. The film will also be in competition at Fespaco 2023.

Le grand film épique d’Apolline Traoré est sélectionné au Panorama de la Berlinale. La première mondiale est le 21 février. Le film sera aussi en compétition au Fespaco 2023.

Synopsis

Sira, a young Fulani woman and her tribe cross the desert to reach a village where her fiancé Jean-Sidi is waiting for their marriage ceremony. Suddenly, all the men are violently massacred by a gang that has appeared out of nowhere. Raped and left for dead in the desert, Sira, alone, has only her instinct for survival. Finding refuge in a cave, she discovers in this desert that the terrorist camp is led by her father's best friend, Moustapha and Yéré, her rapist. Between bitterness, desolation and the desire for revenge, Sira, pregnant by her attacker, does everything to thwart the macabre plans of the terrorists. What she does not know is that  her fiancé has gone to search for her… Three generations of women emerge: Sira: Aissatou, her mother, Kémi, a kidnapped teenager, sequestered as a sexual slave.

Le chef des agresseurs, Yéré emmène Sira pour s’être fait humilier par elle. Violée et laissée pour morte dans le désert, Sira se retrouve seule face à son instinct de survie. Elle trouve refuge dans une grotte. Elle découvre dans ce désert que le camp des terroristes est dirigé par Moustapha le meilleur ami de son père et Yéré son violeur. Entre amertume, désolation et désir de vengeance, Sira, qui va devoir assumer qu’elle est enceinte de son agresseur, décide de tout faire pour déjouer les plans macabres des terroristes, tandis que sans qu’elle ne le sache son fiancé est parti à sa recherche… Trois générations de femmes se révèlent aux côtés de Sira : Aissatou, sa mère, Kémi adolescente kidnappée, séquestrée comme esclave sexuelle.

Bio

Apolline Traoré, filmmaker and producer, highlights the voice of African women. Her oeuvres have won numerous accolades and awards at festivals around the world. During her 20 years of experience, she has produced and directed 6 documentaries, a TV show, 3 TV series, 5 short films and 4 fiction feature films. Apolline Traoré obtained a Masters in Film at Emerson College (Boston MA) and studied at the New York Film Academy. During her career she has received the following distinctions: Knight of the Order of Merit, Burkina Faso, recognized for her work in promoting women in cinema at the Luxor Festival, Ambassador of the National Museum of Burkina Faso.

Réalisatrice et productrice de films Apolline Traoré met l’accent sur la voix de la femme africaine. Elle écrit, réalise et produit des documentaires, séries et publicité TV, courts et longs métrages. Ses œuvres ont remporté de nombreux succès et récompenses à travers des festivals dans le monde. En 20 ans d’expérience, elle a produit et réalisé 6 documentaires, une émission de télé, 3 séries TV, 5 court-métrages et 4 long-métrages de fiction. Apolline TRAORÉ est diplômée en Maîtrise de Film à Emerson Collège (Boston MA) et formée en cadrage à the New York Film Academy. Au cours de sa carrière elle a reçu les distinctions suivantes : Chevalier de l’ordre du mérite Burkinabé, Médaille pour le combat des femmes dans le cinéma au festival de Louxor, Ambassadrice du Musée National du Burkina Faso.

Source: https://ouicoprod.org/fiche/?id=33 

Sandulela Asanda: Mirror Mirror - Berlinale 2023 - Generation 14plus

Sandulela Asanda

Mirror Mirror

Berlinale 2023 Generation 14plus

Sandulela Asanda

Mirror Mirror

South Africa - 2022 - Short film

with Luhle Macanda, Buhle Ngaba, Mpumi Sizani

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202304905.html

Description

Luthando is determined to explore her body sensually. However, her voyage of discovery threatens to fail between internet research, magazine tips and FaceTime. A coming-of-age comedy about female sensuality and self-determination.

MIRROR MIRROR_TRAILER_.mp4 from Sandulela Asanda on Vimeo.

Kantarama Gahigiri : Terra Mater | Motherland - Berlinale Shorts 2023

Kantarama Gahigiri

Terra Mater | Motherland

Berlinale Shorts 2023

Kantarama Gahigiri

Terra Mater | Motherland

Rwanda/Switzerland - 2023

with Cheryl Isheja

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202310632.html

Description
There she stands, confidently, like a goddess of technological junk, surrounded by endless mountains of rubbish, plastic, stench and rare earths. Her accusations are angry, composed and to the point. 

Wanjiru Kinyanjui: A Lover & Killer of Colour - The Battle of the Sacred Tree - Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Wanjiru Kinyanjui
Berlinale
Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Wanjiru Kinyanjui has been fascinated with storytelling since she was a young girl, her imagination visualizing the stories that she read. It is not surprising that her passion brought her to the doorstep of the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, the German film school where she could "plunge into a world full of characters and their stories." She had this to say about her experiences there:

The film school was definitely a great opportunity for me because we had no theoretical exams. Our papers were actual films and we could, therefore, experiment on each film we made after every seminar or workshop. Some cinemas in Berlin provided us with free tickets and it was possible for us to watch as many different films as we had time for. I could choose my own subjects, my own format, and the people I would work with. In a way, it was a freeing experience. (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

The Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023 features two of her works that were produced in Germany 

A Lover & Killer of Colour

Federal Republic of Germany, 1988

with Alida Babel

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314695.html

Description

“I strike with the brush until the white canvas tears.” Wanjiru Kinyanjui’s fiction short about a Black painter in West Berlin was shot on 16mm and draws its power from its atmospheric night scenes and self-confident stream of consciousness.

A young Black woman played by Alida Babel walks through Berlin on her own. It is midnight, her heels click against the steps leading down to the U-Bahn, the train has just left, the empty platform becomes a space of anxiety. Twelve minutes to wait, the voiceover spoken by the director herself complains: “This impatience!” Wanjiru Kinyanjui made A Lover & Killer of Colour (1988) during her studies at the DFFB. This short film miniature revolves around the experience of sexist and racist harassment – and the anger which emerges in response. What can be done with all the aggression that finds no release during such humiliating moments? The film watches as rage is translated into artistic work. The night scenes alternate with footage from the young woman’s studio; she is a painter, and she writes. While she is typing, the voiceover says: “If you do not stop / insulting me / you leeches / I will kill you / in this poem.” Wanjiru Kinyanjui’s directness rejects the sort of sublimation that may have kept the anger contained – even as the wish for reconciliation remains: “Through words, my trust is repaired / on white paper”. (Source: berlinale.de)

The Battle of the Sacred Tree

Germany, 1995

with Margaret Nyacheo, Catherine Kariuki, Roslynn Kimani, Titi Wainaina, Ben Ateku

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314590.html

Description

Mumbi leaves Nairobi for her ancestral village and gets into a quarrel with a Christian women’s group seeking to eradicate the remains of pre-colonial belief systems. Wanjiru Kinyanjui graduated from the DFFB with this smart comedy shot in Kenya.

Wanjiru had this to say about her film: "Well, this is the film I enjoyed doing most: I was telling a story like any other, albeit on African culture.  It is about a group of Christian women who want to be rid of the "primitive, savage and hateful past" by getting the old, sacred tree chopped down.  They cannot mobilize people to do it, so they decide to do it themselves; but before they strike it on a moonlit night, they are attacked by God's own creatures, the biting safari ants which live and thrive under the tree." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Safi Faye: Man sa yay | I, your mother - Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Safi Faye

Man sa yay | I, your mother

Berlinale

Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023

Senegalese filmmaker/anthropologist Safi Faye spent the academic years from 1979 to 1981 at the faculty of the Freie Universität in Berlin as a guest professor. While in Germany, with an eye on the experiences of expatriate residents, in 1980 she directed Man Sa Yay (I, Your Mother). The film relates the experiences of a Senegalese student in Berlin during an exchange of letters with his family in Senegal, juxtaposed to his life in Berlin. Safi Faye would continue her ties with Germany with the co-production of Mossane, released in 1996, with Jürgen Jürges as the director of photography.

The Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2023 features this 1980 film, co-produced with ZDF.

 

Safi Faye
Man sa yay | I, your mother
Federal Republic of Germany / Senegal 1980
with Moussa J. Sarr, Yay Sokhna, Yvonne Nafi
https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314603.html

Description
“Sooner or later, I’ll return to where my other self is.” The everyday experiences of a Senegalese student in West Berlin are marked by a sense of uneasiness in Europe and his family’s expectations in the form of a constant stream of letters.

From Berlinale Catalogue

By the time she produced Man sa yay for German television in 1980, Senegalese auteur Safi Faye had already honed her skills through an impressive suite of projects that reflect on life in her home nation. Effortlessly fluid in style, weaving together fiction, non-fiction, the essayistic and the epistolary, the film follows Moussa, a young student at Berlin’s Technische Universität. While he does connect with friends and lovers, he is primarily seen alone, working odd jobs, cooking or tidying his apartment. At home is where he reads the letters from family members and his partner in Senegal which structure the film. At once the centre of the film and a conduit for other lived experiences, Moussa serves to reflect and refract two distinct constellations of social connections. We learn of his loved ones in Senegal (including their wish lists of consumer goods from Europe). Such experiences and desires are mirrored by the sequences of his friends, other West African expatriates making due by hawking “African artifacts” on the street. In each case, we hear the repeated question, laden with longing in some cases, pitched as thinly veiled microaggression elsewhere: “When will you return?”

Wanjiru Kinyanjui: Black in the Western World - Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021

Wanjiru Kinyanjui

Black in the Western World
Berlinale
Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021

The Berlinale Forum Special Fiktionsbescheinigung 2021 features Wanjiru Kinyanjui's seminal work on identity, belonging and the immigrant experience in Germany, produced by the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)

Image: Wanjiru Kinyanjui, Black in the Western World © Wanjiru Kinyanjui

"In the German context, I had a problem of identification: I was asked by a co-student why I made all my films on black people. I asked, why shouldn't I? Of course, it is because I was a foreigner and we shared not only problems of non-acceptance, but a common heritage. And also, if I don't, who is going to do it? The only problem with this is that one ends up in a ghetto—people want to keep you in it. I was getting sucked up in a spiral of having to deal with racism in everything I do—radio programs on black people in Germany, lectures on racism in film, teaching children about Africa, writing poems on my surroundings, etc." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Wanjiru Kinyanjui

Black in the Western World

Germany 1992, 23min

with Natalie Asfaha, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Paul Ford

At the start of the 1990s, Kenyan DFFB student Kinyanjui grappled with how it felt to be Black in Germany. Racist material from German everyday culture rubs up against conversations with other Black people in Europe. Germany in the early 1990s: Racist caricatures, picture books and advertisements circulate within popular culture and are consumed by white audiences without second thought. In school playgrounds and classrooms, racist games and songs are part of everyday life. Filmmaker Wanjiru Kinyanjui and her interviewee Tsitsi Dangarembga analyse these supposed gags in a cool, detached fashion despite the traumatising violence of the images they contain. These scenes are cross-cut with others showing two men from Malawi and Namibia discussing right-wing extremism in Germany and encouraging Black people in Europe to fight against racism and neocolonialism. The film also examines Eurocentric ignorance about African art or the dark chapter of Germany’s colonial period. Back in the spotlight after an extended slumber in the archives, Black in the Western World uses interviews to deliver a sharp critique of racist as well as capitalist structures. Made while Kinyanjui was studying at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB), the film raises awareness, strengthens and emboldens. (Can Sungu). Source: https://www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/programm-fiktionsbescheinigung/black-in-the-western-world/

Wanjiru had this to say about her film: "Nathalie, another friend of mine from the group, has been collecting images of black people on advertisements and she talked about it in my film, Black in the Western World.  She noted that they are negatively portrayed, too, although this is not obvious at first glance.  Others in the film are Mahoma from Malawi, who was hurt during a racist attack; Felix from Namibia, who was also bashed up on some occasion; and Tsitsi Dangarembga from Zimbabwe, who was at that time busy trying to understand life as a black woman in Germany. This film has been shown at community centers in Germany where Germans would get very upset about Africans summarizing their points of view.  They would be angry with me! Well, that is their own point of view." (Excerpt of interview from Sisters of the Screen by Beti Ellerson)

Berlinale 2021. Alice Diop : We | Nous - Winner of Best Film in Encounters | Primée à la Berlinale

Berlinale 2021. Alice Diop: We | Nous  

Winner of Best Film in Encounters |

 Primée à la Berlinale

Image: unifrance.org

The award for Best Film in Encounters goes to "We" (Nous) by Alice Diop. Source: Berlinale

La cinéaste Alice Diop, lauréate du Grand prix Encounters de la Berlinale 2021 pour son documentaire "Nous" (We à l’international) ! Inspirée par Les Passagers du Roissy Express de François Maspero, paru en 1989, la réalisatrice originaire d’Aulnay-sous-Bois a repris le RER B avec sa caméra au poing pour y documenter les changements de la banlieue parisienne, 30 ans après. Source: https://lemag.seinesaintdenis.fr/Alice-Diop-primee-a-la-Berlinale-2021

Filmmaker Alice Diop, laureate of the Encounters Grand Prize at the Berlinale 2021 for her documentary Nous (international title: "We"), was inspired by Les passagers du Roissy Express by François Maspero, published in 1989. With a hand-held camera, Alice Diop, who is from Aulnay-sous-Bois, journeyed on the RER B to document the changes in this region of the outskirts of Paris, 30 years later.

Synopsis

The RER B is an urban train that traverses Paris and its environs from north to south. Multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker Alice Diop takes us through these suburban spaces and confronts us with some of the faces and stories of which they are composed.

A moving testament to the importance of filming as a process of bearing witness and remembering, Nous is timely in many ways. It is subtle and shrewd in a world that favours shortcuts and easy answers. Justifiably adopting the fragmented structure of a patchwork portrait in order to describe a riven society, Diop displays impressive control of her essay and its impact. In the film’s first few minutes, a deer is observed, through binoculars. A certain sense of awkward, human-generated distance stays with us. Isolation, discrimination and nostalgia for hierarchies, inherited from a monarchical past … Divisions haunt France’s present. But the human urge to give as well as to receive stubbornly creeps into every situation, observed or triggered. Could this be the one thing that still keeps a nation together? Source: YouTube

Une ligne, le RER B, traversée du nord vers le sud. Un voyage à l'intérieur de ces lieux indistincts qu'on appelle la banlieue.

Des rencontres : une femme de ménage à Roissy, un ferrailleur au Bourget, une infirmière à Drancy, un écrivain à Gif-sur-Yvette, le suiveur d'une chasse à courre en vallée de Chevreuse et la cinéaste qui revisite le lieu de son enfance.  Chacun est la pièce d'un ensemble qui compose un tout. Un possible "nous". Source: unifrance.org

 

 

African Women at the Berlinale

African Women at the Berlinale

African women are increasingly visible at the Berlinale. Notably with Jacqueline Nsiah who joined the Berlinale Selection Committee in 2023.

Below are articles posted on the African Women in Cinema Blog announcing their work.

Berlinale 2024. Mati Diop: Dahomey - The Golden Bear for Best Film https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2024/02/mati-diop-dahomey-golden-bear-for-best-film.html

Berlinale 2024. Mexican-Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o is President of the Jury.

Berlinale 2021. Alice Diop: We | Nous  - Winner of Best Film in Encounters | Primée à la Berlinale

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/03/berlinale-2021-alice-diop-we-nous.html

 

Oufsaiyed Elkhortoum (Khartoum Offside) by Marwa Zein - Official World Premiere in Berlinale Forum 2019
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/01/oufsaiyed-elkhortoum-khartoum-offside.html

 

Berlinale (Forum) 2018: Maki'la by/de Machérie Ekwa Bahango
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/02/berlinale-forum-2018-makila-byde.html

 

Berlinale 2016: The Revolution won't be televised by/de Rama Thiaw https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2016/02/berlinale-2016-revolution-wont-be.html

 

Jessie Chisi at the Berlinale Talent Campus

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/09/jessie-chisi-talks-about-between-rings.html