Mis Me Binga 2017 : Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time | Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun by/par Pélagie Ng'onana (Africiné)

Mis Me Binga 2017 : Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time | Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun by/par Pélagie Ng'onana (Africiné)

[English] Français ci-après

Mis Me Binga 2017: “Women's cinema celebrated in Cameroon for the 8th time” by Pélagie Ng'onana, Africiné, 26/06/2017. Translation from French by Beti Ellerson. (An African Women in Cinema Blog/Africiné collaboration).

The International Women's Film Festival opens on 28 June in Yaoundé. For three days, the 24 films selected for this 8th edition of Mis Me Binga are presented to the public. "Three days of cinema" as it is called by the team who initiated the project in 2010, and led by filmmaker Narcisse Wandji (Walls, 2016) and producer Evodie Ngueyeli, is driven by the challenge of energising the local culture scene with the magic of cinema.

According to the organisation, this year's programming is a consistent representation of African women's production. This is certainly the case of Fruitless Tree by Aïcha Macky of Niger, the opening film. The 52-minute documentary addresses the hidden torment of women suffering from infertility. The film was in the official selection at the last Fespaco [2017], and has also won several prizes, including the Africa Movie Academy Awards for Best Documentary in 2016. The public will also be able to appreciate Cameroonian Chantal Youdom's Rêve corrompu (Corrupted Dream), El Dorado by her compatriot Agnès Yougang, Le crayon (The Pencil) by Adjaratou Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso and L’Absence by Hawa Ndiaye from Mali.

Cameroon leads the list of selected films, followed by Niger with three films and Burkina Faso with two. Mali, DRC, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Algeria each have one film. While the official selection covers mainly Central and West Africa, the team of Mis Me Binga is nevertheless pleased. However, this collection is far from a representation of "all the wonders of the cinemas of Africa" ​​as this 8th edition claims. A detail that nevertheless does not undermine the importance of the event: to move the spectators, to allow them to experience a range of emotions through their encounter with recent cinematographic works. "The importance of these films and the very reason for their existence is to give them visibility, to be able to provide elements for reflection, criticism and, why not, simply for entertainment," emphasises Evodie Ngueyeli.

From its inception Mis Me Binga ("The eyes of women" in the Ewondo language of Cameroon) took on the role of advocate to promote the woman’s perspective in the universe of the 7th art. But since the last three years, the festival has opened a window to films made by men, with themes supporting the cause of women. Although ultimately, in terms of numbers, the works by men are equal to those by women. They include The Digger by Nabe Daone, Royal Team Family by Abdel Aziz Zra, both from Cameroon; Le Jardin d'Akoua (The Garden of Akoua) by Marcelin Bossou from Togo, and the Algerian Mohamed Yargui with his film Je te promets (I promise you). This year's competition includes feature films. The two juries, for feature and for short, will discern the awards for these films, which will be announced on July 1st during the closing ceremony.

Eight years later, Mis Me Binga, which ranks as the second most important festival in Cameroon (after Écrans Noirs, which takes place in July), has seen results: about 2,000 films have been screened, 10,000 visitors and 35 women trained in screenwriting, marketing and film production. This edition proposes, throughout the three days, an initiation to film animation workshop.

[Français]

Mis Me Binga 2017 Le cinéma féminin célébré pour la 8ème fois au Cameroun. Pélagie Ng'onana. Publié le 26/06/2017

 

Le festival international de films de femmes s'ouvre le 28 juin à Yaoundé. Trois jours pas plus pour présenter au public les 24 films retenus pour cette 8ème édition du Mis Me Binga. "Trois jours de cinéma" tel que le présente la jeune équipe initiatrice du projet depuis 2010. Des jeunes, en tête desquels Narcisse Wandji, réalisateur (Walls, 2016) et Evodie Ngueyeli, productrice, nourris par le défi d'animer l'environnement culturel local avec la magie du cinéma. POUR LIRE L’INTEGRALITE : http://www.africine.org/?menu=art&no=14160

Mis Me Binga International Women's Film Festival 2011 2nd Edition

The 2nd International Women's Film Festival Mis Be Binga (The Eyes of Women) will be held in Yaoundé from 8-12 March 2011. The goal of the festival is to promote the creativity of women from Cameroon, Africa and the whole world; to establish a network among women filmmakers from different parts of the world and to bring about a better understanding of different cultures and of each other. The purpose of the festival is to use the medium of film to address issues of violence, inequality, discrimination and other problems related to women's rights and gender issues. Moreover, to let the world discover the pressing concerns of society and the evolution of a changing world as seen by women. The training workshop, "When the Idea Becomes a Film" will be held again this year under the theme: How to Make a Low Budget Film".  A conference will be organized 10 March 2011 under the title "Cinema and Freedom".  

Interview with Évodie Ngueyeli, Artistic Director of Mis Me Binga by Sitou Ayité for Africiné.org on the occasion of the first festival in 2010. Translation from French to English by Beti Ellerson

Sitou Ayité: Please introduce yourself?

Évodie Ngueyeli: My name is Évodie Ngueyeli from Cameroon and I am in charge of the artistic direction of the International Women's Film Festival Mis Be Binga.

What was the idea behind the creation of the festival?

The festival was born from the fact that in Cameroon women  are pleased to be on stage, though when they are behind the camera, they hold the positions of make-up artists, script supervisors and set designers. However, the cinema was greatly influenced by a woman, Sita Bella, her real name Thérèse Mbella Mbida, the first woman in Cameroon to become a pilot, a journalist and a director, and one of the first Africans to explore cinema in Europe. Women are denied the right to speak, to be in charge, and to talk about how they view the world. In other words, the position of director has not been in their purview. As it were, of the fifty films made in Cameroon, only ten of them are by women. And yet, when women do decide to take the road into filmmaking, their films are a hit. This is the case of the films of Oswalde Lewat: Un amour pendant la guerre (A Love during War), Une affaire de nègres (Black Business), in which she gives her point of view and her vision of society on some highly delicate issues. There is also Hélène Ebah’s Les blessures inguérissables (The Unhealing Wounds), which is of a truly remarkable and unique aesthetic. And of course, the film, Paris à tout prix (Paris or Nothing) by Joséphine Ndagnou, which packed the movie houses in Yaoundé for weeks.

In view of these facts it was important to establish a women’s film festival that could encourage women to make films, that would showcase and promote their work and also provide training via the workshop “Quand l’idée devient un film” (When the idea becomes a film).

What is the meaning of "Mis Me Binga”?

In fact, Mis Me Binga is from the local Cameroonian language Éwondo. Mis refers to “the eyes” and Me Binga means “women”. So Mis Me Binga translates to “The Eyes of Women”. And to put it into the context of the festival, it means “A Woman’s Perspective”, since we would like women to speak up and express their vision of society.

Is the festival a way to promote women’s liberation?

Not really, in fact we promote female talent. We give women the opportunity to have a platform to showcase their films, encourage them to produce more and express and share their view of the world.

In your opinion, what is a woman’s perspective of the world?

 
I cannot say how women view the world because there are thousands and millions of women on earth and each of them has a particular sensibility. Therefore one cannot talk about a single vision but a diversity of viewpoints.

Do you think that at present African women have a visible place in cinema?

If one speaks about a prominent role, in the sense that women actually have their say on important issues, I think there are very few in this position. As I stated earlier, women produce very little in Cameroon and in Africa in general, only Burkina Faso is the exception where women produce more than men. In order for women to play a more prominent role they must first of all produce more and I think there still is some way to go.