Long Live Cinema! Long Live FESPACO. <em>A luta continua</em>

Abstract

Long Live Cinema!Long Live FESPACO. A luta continua Claire Diao (bio) February 2005. In the open air auditorium of the Georges Méliès Cultural Center in Ouagadougou (renamed the French Institute of Ouagadougou), is being screened Ismaël Ferroukhi's Le grand voyage (2004, Morocco), opening on a star-studded night with a voice over by ARTE. "This film was born under a lucky star." In the stands, hundreds of spectators are religiously following this competing fiction feature film that traces the story of a boy, born in France, and his father, born abroad, going together to Mecca despite strong cultural misunderstandings. What about the first time I attended FESPACO! I was certain I would meet the film family (composed of directors, actors, technicians, faculty, and programmers from all over the world)! The screening of Diaspora films was sometimes done in French and anglophones had trouble finding their way around. Discussions on movies were held at Hôtel Indépendance, by the pool, although Ousmane Sembène can no longer attend, as he passed away the year before. Some dared to approach filmmakers they did not know, others stayed in their corners. And always, at the entrance of cinema rooms, those interminable queues, those crowded stairs, and those screenings where the magic of cinema transpires. A feeling of union and collectivity… For me who was born in Africa and raised abroad, there was a feeling of homecoming, added to my passion for cinema which, unintentionally created a perfect link between my father's country—my dear and beautiful Faso, cradle of FESPACO, INAFEC, CIPROFILMS, and CIDC—and that of my mother—cradle of the Lumières brothers, the cinematograph, the Cannes Film Festival, and the CNC. What to say about this feeling that I had then, watching dozens of films, rubbing shoulders with hundreds of moviegoers, meeting late Samba Félix N'Diaye, then president of the FESPACO Documentary jury backed by Écrans Association, of which I had the honor of being a member? This is where I met Teboho Edkins who was vilified in the Petit Méliès room for shooting a documentary about men spreading the AIDS virus in South [End Page 260] Africa. There, I met many journalists who later became my colleagues. There, I confirmed my love for cinemas from Africa which later guided my university and professional choices. During my internship at the Centre Culturel Georges Méliès, I had the pleasure of organizing two screenings for four hundred students from Ouagadougou around the Second World War. These high school students came in large numbers and above all, actively participated in the ensuing debate with their History teachers. It was a personal revelation—that of transmitting cinema–but also a cultural revelation. There was (and still is) in Burkina, an unprecedented thirst for learning, far from the overconsumption and overcrowded cultural offer available to French high school students, overwhelmed by TV screens, cultural outings, discounted rates and video recorders in class to illustrate courses delivered by their teachers. In my discussions with Ouaga high school teachers, two remarks held my attention: the first one was related to language. Savvy moviegoers like to see movies in VO. One teacher hailed me "Why screen a film in English when even French is not the mother tongue of our students?" Then the remark from this other lady: "This movie screening idea is very good. But why bring high school students to you while cinema could come to the students? You could reach a lot more people." Here are two remarks I have never forgotten and which helped forge my career. While studying cinema in France and then in England, I discovered many filmmakers and scholars, many of whom wrote great papers for the magazine Écrans d'Afrique edited by the Italian association COE. I realized that the cinema of a whole continent was often shrinking due to lack of knowledge, of interest and especially of means. We talk about "African cinema" as if there were only ten productions per year on the continent, whereas in reality, each country has built its cinematography since (or well before) the independences! The fight is on all fronts...