Retrospective Rosine Mbakam - Un état du monde - State of the world 2024 - Forum des images

Retrospective Rosine Mbakam - Un état du monde - State of the world 2024 

Forum des images 

www-forumdesimages-fr.
Forum des images, Paris

Excerpts of program description translated from French

“How do I access people’s reality, how do find my place in their lives”

“When one films Africa, everything is shown, even things that have nothing to do with the story”

A homage to women. These portraits filmed by Rosine Mbakam, present their life stories. At the same time difficult, they are embedded in the strength and serenity of daily life. Rosine Mbakam's cinematic gaze explores myriad issues at the intersection of documentary and fiction.

“Coming from documentary filmmaking, I respect what I find. I simply looked at reality, and it gave me back what I wanted,” explains the Belgium-based Cameroonian filmmaker regarding Mambar Pierrette, selected for the 2023 Filmmakers’ Fortnight. After completing her studies at in Cameroon, she continued at INSAS in Brussels, where she made several other portraits (Chez Jolie Coiffure, Les Deux Visages d'une femme bamileké, Les Prières de Delphine).

In partnership with the Wallonia-Brussels Center in Paris.

Les Prières de Delphine by Rosine Mbakam
In the presence of the cineaste.

Sunday, January 28, 8 p.m.

Chez Jolie Coiffure by Rosine Mbakam
In the presence of the cineaste.
Screening followed by a debate.

Monday, January 29, 3:30 p.m.

Prisme by Rosine Mbakam, Eléonore Yameogo and An Van Dienderen
In the presence of Rosine Mbakam.

Screening followed by a debate.
Monday, January 29 6:15 p.m.

The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman by Rosine Mbakam
In the presence of the cineaste.
Screening followed by a debate.
Tuesday, January 30, 5 p.m.

Mambar Pierrette by Rosine Mbakam
Preview. In the presence of the cineaste.
Screening followed by a meeting hosted by Oumeïma Nechi (journalist at Courrier International).
Tuesday, January 30 7:30 p.m.

Source: https://www.forumdesimages.fr/les-programmes/un-etat-du-monde-2024/retrospective-rosine-mbakam-uedm24

Mardi 30 janvier 2024 - 19h30

Rencontre avec Rosine Mbakam. Animée par Oumeïma Nechi, journaliste chez Courrier International. Dans le cadre du Festival Un état du monde 2024 

Le cinéma pour moi sert aussi à déconstruire, pour trouver ma propre pensée, pour trouver mon propre regard et mon propre rapport aux autres et au monde

Cinema for me serves as well, to deconstruct, to find my own thoughts, to find my own gaze, my own relationship with others and the world

Cinemas africanos nas histórias e nas teorias do cinema – estéticas, desafios e novos cenários (African cinemas in the histories and theories of cinema – aesthetics, challenges and new scenarios)

Cinemas africanos nas histórias e nas teorias do cinema – estéticas, desafios e novos cenários

v. 1 n. 2 (1)

O segundo número da revista A Barca é dedicado às pesquisas sobre cinemas africanos no Brasil, no intuito de complexificar o modo como se ensina e se compreende as histórias e as teorias do cinema. Com este dossiê, espera-se contribuir para ampliar e alocar os filmes africanos nas discussões e análises teóricas, estilísticas e metodológicas do audiovisual.

Navegar ainda é preciso! Boa leitura!

https://periodicos.uff.br/abarca/issue/view/2938

Translation: African cinemas in the histories and theories of cinema – aesthetics, challenges and new scenarios. v. 1 n. 2 (1) The second issue of A Barca magazine is dedicated to research on African cinema in Brazil, with the aim of adding complexity to the way in which the histories and theories of cinema are taught and understood. With this dossier, we hope to contribute to expanding and including African films in theoretical, stylistic and methodological audiovisual debates and analyses. Navigating remains necessary! Enjoy!  

Mati Diop: Dahomey - Berlinale 2024

Mati Diop

Dahomey

Berlinale 2024

2024 - Documentary - France/Senegal/Benin

Description

Novembre 2021, vingt-six trésors royaux du Dahomey s’apprêtent à quitter Paris pour être rapatriés vers leur terre d’origine, devenue le Bénin. Avec plusieurs milliers d’autres, ces œuvres furent pillées lors de l’invasion des troupes coloniales françaises en 1892. Mais comment vivre le retour de ces ancêtres dans un pays qui a dû se construire et composer avec leur absence ? Tandis que l’âme des œuvres se libère, le débat fait rage parmi les étudiants de l’université d’Abomey Calavi.

November 2021, twenty-six royal treasures of Dahomey prepare to leave Paris to be returned to their land of origin, Benin. In 1892, with several thousands of others, these oeuvres were pillaged during the invasion by French colonial troops. How then will the return of these ancestors, to a country which has had to reconstruct and rebuild itself since their absence, be received? While the soul of these oeuvres frees itself, the issue is hotly debated among the students at the University of Abomey Calavi.

 

À lire aussi:

La France a restitué 26 œuvres à la République du Bénin en 2021 : pourquoi ces pièces en particulier ?

https://www.quaibranly.fr/fr/missions-et-fonctionnement/eclairages-sur-les-demandes-de-restitution-du-patrimoine-africain

Also Read:

France will return 26 works to the Republic of Benin: why these particular pieces and what will happen to them?

https://www.quaibranly.fr/en/missions-and-operations/insights-into-the-restitutions-of-african-heritage-conserved-at-the-museum-1

 

June Givanni, pioneering international film curator to receive BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award

June Givanni, pioneering international film curator
to receive BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award

17 January 2024 

https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/june-givanni-bafta-outstanding-british-contribution-to-cinema-award

Photo: BAFTA/Charlie Clift

June Givanni, the pioneering film curator, writer and programmer of African and African diaspora cinema, and founder of The June Givanni PanAfrican Archive, will be presented with BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award at the EE BAFTA Film Awards next month

This Special Award, one of BAFTA’s highest accolades, is presented to an individual or organisation that has made a significant and inspiring contribution to film through a particular project or work - with focus on recognising work that might not otherwise be eligible in BAFTA’s competitive awards’ categories. It will be presented to June Givanni during the EE BAFTAs’ ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, as part of a commemoration of her work to-date including that of The June Givanni PanAfrican Archive (JGPACA).

 

Based in London, the JGPACA is a volunteer-run archive founded and amassed by June Givanni over forty years as part of her wider curatorial work and is dedicated to preserving the history of pan-African and Black British cinema and culture. It comprises over 10,000 rare and unique artefacts documenting the development of filmmaking across Africa and the African diaspora, including in Britain that might otherwise not have been preserved – and has grown to become one of the largest independent archives in the UK. 

“I dared to make a film”: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Safi Faye by Beti Ellerson - Black Camera: An International Film Journal 15.1 (Fall 2023) - African Women in Cinema Dossier

“I dared to make a film”: A Tribute to the Life and Work of Safi Faye

by Beti Ellerson

Black Camera:

An International Film Journal 15. 1 (Fall 2023)

African Women in Cinema Dossier

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/916319

Images: Beti Ellerson 

My journey into African Women Cinema Studies began with my interviews of the women at Fespaco in 1997, Safi Faye was among them. I remember very vividly those moments I shared with Safi, she was laid-back, passionate, engaging, and funny. The film that resulted from those interviews, Sisters of the Screen, is an important part of that journey, and her words introduce it. She, without a doubt led the way for me. I have learned a great deal from her, her work, her cinematic practice and innovative ethnological methodology, the importance of listening, the primacy of voice, all of which I have incorporated in my own work. Indeed, as in her own filmmaking: the camera, the cameraman and I, were eyewitness to her story. Here twenty-seven years later, it is an honor to share this tribute.

Safi Faye was born in Dakar, Senegal, on November 22, 1943, and throughout her life embraced her Serer roots of the rural world. Raised in a large family—the second of five sisters and a brother, her parents emphasized the importance of formal education and encouraged their children to succeed academically. She received her teaching certificate from the Normal School of Rufisque and spent her tenure as a teacher in Dakar. As an official guide at the First World Festival of Black Arts held in Senegal in 1966, she was introduced to African cultures and learned about the significance of their contributions on a global scale. This was a turning point in her personal and professional development. During the event she would meet intellectuals from around the world, including anthropologist and cineaste Jean Rouch who would invite her to participate in his film. During the shooting, she would travel to Europe and other parts of Africa.

       

She often talked about receiving a French colonial education, which gave her more knowledge about France than about Africa, and the paradox of having to go to Europe to learn about her continent. In 1970 she went to Paris to study ethnology at the Sorbonne, from a desire to work on her own culture and traditions—she studied as well at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. She completed her doctorate in 1979. As part of the curriculum at the Sorbonne she had recourse to the camera as an instrument of research. Having understood the significance of film as a visual record, she enrolled in the Louis Lumière Film School; there she “dared” to make a film, La Passante, in 1972. Other films followed, fourteen in total, notably the internationally acclaimed Kaddu Beykat (1975), Fad’jal (1979) and Mossane (1996). Using cinema as a tool for teaching and learning, Safi aimed to educate future generations of Africans about their origins, their history. The passion that she had for her continent and its people has been evident throughout her career as educator, ethnologist, filmmaker. She talked fondly of her beloved daughter, Zeïba, who was born in 1976; she was also a grandmother: “I am spending more and more time with them, and I enjoy it.”

 

On Feburary 22, 2023 she joined the ancestors, where she lays to rest in her paternal native village of Fadial. But rather than a library burning down—a famous citation of Amadou Hampâté Bâ that she quotes in her legendary film Fad’jal—her story will remain alive, passed on to the next generation, as we continue in the oral tradition, to say her name—and show her work.

Safi, may the earth rest lightly upon you.

 

Indeed, in the words of her compatriot Birago Diop, Safi Faye lives—through the sounds and whispers of the Serer country, through her daughter, her grandchildren, through our memories, through her films—the last of which invokes the Pangool ancestors.

May they guard and protect her.

 

This essay is a tribute to her life and work.

Table of contents: 

Safi Faye, Ethnologist, Cineaste, Peasant, Mother

The Oeuvres of Safi Faye
La Passante
Revanche
Kaddu Beykat | Peasant Letter
Fad'jal 
Goob na ñu 
Man sa yay 
Les ames au soleil | Souls Under the Sun
Selbé et tant d'autres | Selbé, One Among Many
Trois ans cinq mois
Ambassades nourricières / Culinary Embassies
Racines noires / Black Roots
Elsie Haas, femme peintre et cinéaste d'Haiti
Tesito
Mossane

Themes across Time 
Safi Faye through a Womanistic Lens
Work as Leitmotif
Visualizing Oral Tradition: Giving Agency to the Voice of the Peasantry—The Duty of Memory
The Peasantry and the Production of Knowledge
Safi Faye’s Imaginary and the Western Gaze
Safi Faye Reclaiming Discourse on the Anthropology of Africa: The Dichotomies of Fact and the Fictional Imaginaire

Cinema lessons from Safi Faye
Words on Cinematic Practice
For Whom Do I Make Films
Filming in Africa
The Politics of African Cinema

The Visualization of the Rural World as Cinematic Vision

Words on Kaddu Beykat

Words on Fad’jal

Words on Mossane

The Pleasure and Pain of a Cineaste

The Makings of a Final Oeuvre

Filmography

Some Moments in the Life and Work of Safi Faye 

Tributes to Safi Faye from around the World