African Cinema and (Re)Education: Using Recent African Feature Films

Abstract

Over the past few years the Montreal World Film Festival has continued to increase its programming of films by African directors. The 1991 edition, which ran from August 22-September 2, was certainly no exception. I happened to turn on the television to the French station and caught Societe Radio Canada’s “official” review of Laafi by Pierre Yameogo of Burkina Faso. The reviewers, Chantal Jolis and Rene Homier-Roy, dismissed Yameogo’s portrayal of a current African problem—braindrain—as weak in terms of artistic production. For example, they both agreed that Laafi had too many “monotonous moments.” Homier-Roy, in particular, seemed completely oblivious to the colonizing attitude he displayed when he spoke of how the film illustrated the “petit-negre” (a phrase I have rarely heard spoken since I left France in 1987) side of Africans. He then proceeded to “legitimize” the comment by shrugging his shoulders and declaring, “It’s the Africans who are showing it this time, not us.” Finally, the reviewers decided that African films are really only useful for their “anthropological” information.