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Vues d' Afrique: The new African cinema in Canada BY HAL WEAVER

hen the new African cinema TV festival) audiences in stitches. Ghana's Balogun, with Black Goddess, Orum Mooru and comes to Canada this month rebirth is spearheaded by the government­ other titles . The Yoruba-Ianguage films (with (April 24-30 in Montreal, early funded Ghana Film Industry Corporation subtitles in English or French) have been joined May elsewhere), Canadian (GFIC), working closely with private film by controversial Maitatsine (Sule's first cinephiles will be ab le to screen a companies. Housaspeaking feature), a bloody re-enactment continenWtal cinema that is vibrant, diverse and The thrust of this new dynamism is of the religious fanaticism of a Muslim sect provocative. exemplified by Heritage Africa (Kwah Ansah, terrorising Kano to the point where the whose earlier Love Brewed ill all African Pot Governor called in the Nigerian Army for What characterizes the films we are likely to successfully toured English-speaking Canada as pacification - shades of jim jones' jonestown see during the 5th lournees du Cinema Africain a fund-raiser for the NGO, CUSO). Heritage and of the Ayatollah's attacks on Rushdie. (ICA) in Montreal and on tour in other Canadian Africa became the first film from an anglophone First features have emerged from Zimbabwe cities 1 What observable trends highlight current African country to win the grand prize at and Kenya, both locations for recently successful African production, now in its third decade? Ouagadougou's prestigious FESPACO (1989). Hollywood films (Cry Freedom and Outof Africa). Screenings at film festivals in Africa (FESPACO lohn Akomfreh's Testametlt (previous film, Both have recently established specialized '87 and '89) and Europe (Ami ens '87 and '88, Halldworth Songs) has been praised for its lyrical schools in film and TV production. and Nantes '88) reveal the following : qualities. Both are re-interpretations of the period when Kwame Nkrumah dominated • The evolution of a new generation of CURRENT TRENDS Ghana's indigenous political scene - the first filmmakers whose trademark is low-budget, • The revitalization of feature-film industries prior to independence in 1957 and the second a personal statement films and in whom there is in English-speaking Africa, especially in decade later. high expectation from critics and authorities. Nigeria and Ghana . Nigeria's private-industry But it is surely to Nigeria that the future Included in this group of creators are Sissoko formula films in Yoruba left the Ouagadougou belongs. New government policies in both of Mali, with FinwlI; Ouedcaogo of Burkina (site of the '89 FESPACO, pan-African film and culture and mass communications and a Faso, (Yaaba - Grandmother); and Gaston revitalized Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC, Kaboure, also of Burkina Faso, with Zam 80ko. under filmmaker Eddie Ugbomah) have already All are second features. Both Burkinibe Dr. Harold (Hal) Weaver, who gave the first course led to a nearly finished, sorely needed film lab in filmmakers use a highly personalized, ill the world Oil African cinema , curretltly teaches los (also headquarters for the NFC) and an ethno-dramatic style: dramatic re-enactment Third World film atthe Universitede MOlltniai. He is imminent decision about a possible international characterized by long shots with long takes, also acOllsultallt ill cross-cultural commullicatioll alld film festival within two years. Nigeria already slow pace and the natural beauty of rural decors. intematiollal cooperatioll. has Africa's most prolific filmmaker: Ola Kaboure's leadership role in the rebirth of the Federation of Pan-African Filmmakers (FEPACI) assures him an important place in current African cinema . Sissoko, on the other hand, has opted for urban decors of Mali's capital, Bamako, in his low-budget films. All were prizewinners at Ouaga and should find their way to Canada in mid-year either through the the JCA, or the World Film Festival.

• South-South co-productions across national and continental boundaries, illustrated by Burkina Faso, with joint ventures with Cuba and other countries. Interest-free loans by the Burkinibe government and collaboration between public and private sectors, perceptively seen by authorities as necessary for the survival and growth of Burkinibe cinema. Ghana, with its revitalized GFIC, is also active in international co-productions, involving both African (Gerima, Ansah) and non-African (Herzog) directors. Camp de Thinroye (Ousmane Sembene - the 'Pope' of African cinema - and Thiemo Faty Tania Rogers in John Akomfreh's Testament Sow), which received a special prize at the 1988

CINEMA CANADA PAGllUt MARCH • APRIL 1 ..' CINEMA CAN •A D A

Venice Festival, was aco-production of Senegal, Comillg To America, Out of Africa, Cry Freedom or from Channel 4, are critically analyzing current, Algeria and Tunisia at both the creative and perhaps The Revenge Agaillst Tar zall? local and international exploitation through financial levels. And the two new, fledgling film such sensitive issues as race, gender, class, countries (Kenya and Zimbabwe), already used • Proliferation of complementary African identity search and sex ual preference. for shooting Hollywood and European Diaspora films or Proliferation of a In Paris, filmmakers are continuing the productions (mId Calladiall- ed. ), can be complementary African-Diaspora cinema by: predominance of French bureaucrats and expected to profit from co-productions. 1) African-born filmmakers living abroad for technicians at all stages of the creative process diverse reasons (economic, technological, (pre-production, production, post·p roduction). • Unabashedly commercial films, with cultural, political) and 2) African-origin, Les t we fo rget, most films fro mF rancophone possible international mass appeal often shot on African-oriented filmmakers born outside Africa are, in fact, African-French location in glamorous urban areas (eg. Abidjan, Africa . (Creators based in Europe - France, the co-productions. Numerous filmmakers ha ve Ivory Coast) and often with humour toose ldom U. K. , Belgium, Holland - all counhies with a dual addresses in Paris and in Africa. found in more politically or more culturalll' colonial past; and in the New World -the U. 5., motivated films . These films are especially Brazil, Cuba - all wi th legacies of slavery and • Adeeply feminist - not always female­ found in decidedly capitalist states: Bal POllssiere colonialism. commitment to human and equal rights for both (Henri Duparc); BOllka (Gnoan M'Bala ); and Les As well, in the Creole-speaking isles of the genders. GlierissellYS (Siiri Bakaha) all of the Ivory Coast, Indian ocean and Caribbean, filmmakers are Morta Negu (Flora Gomes, a male), as well as the productions from Nigeria noted reinterpreting African history and the traumatic Gineau-Bi ssau's first feature, treating the previously. dislocation and nomadry outside Africa. collective struggle for political independence Can we now expect to see African versions of Sarraolill ia (Med Hondo, Mauritania-France) after five centuries of Portuguese rule ; the and Testamellt (john Akomfreh, Ghana-U. K. ) Filmmaker Gaston Kaboure join the earlier HaJ1Iest 300 Years (Haile Gerima, of Burkina Faso Ethiopia-U. S. A. ) as revisionist cinematic products challenging the traditional Eurocentric significant decline in the distribution of African interpretations of African history . films: Two of the most important films produced by "Of course, much work needs to be done on and about the African Diaspora in the Caribbean audience-building, especially given the fac t that are emotionally mo ving, aesthetically many people ... still tend to approach African innovative and his torically accurate. Rue Casse cinema with a sense of uncertainty at best. " Negres (Euzhan Palzy, Martinique-France ), is a Ini tiatives of the African-Diaspora and other touching portrait of a young man struggling for visible minority communities, with such development and coming of age in the French publicly su pported cultural and colony of Martinique in the 1930s. The earlier communications entities as CBC, NFB, CRTC, classic Other Frallcisco (Sergio Giral, Cuba - wi th Communications Canada, provincial Ministries struggling mid-years in New York) is of Culture and Communications, provincial undoubtedly the most important, analytically educational broadcasters, may lead to a wider significant film ever made on African slavery­ aperture of views through film and TV. and resistance to slavery - in the New World. Meanwhile, the annual JCA-Vues d'Afrique The film attains historical importance because of and other exhibitions offer the rare occasion for Tunisian filmmaker Canadians to view at least some of Africa's film its innovative style in demystifying the romantic Nejia Ben Mabrouk depiction of slavery in abolitionist novels such as and TV productions and to come away at least a Uncle Tom 's Cabin and Franciso - hence the film's semi-autobiographicalTrace Nejia Ben little better informed about African dreams and title -and in hundreds ofthe pro-White planters' Mabrouk, Tunisia) who fought for five years to realities as seen through the lens of her Southlanti-Black Civil War and reconstruction have her film released; Ulle PorteS llr Ie ciel filmmakers .• films, GOlle witll the Wind and Birth of aNation (Farida Benlyazid, Morocco) and The Citadel being two of the least subtle examples. (Mohamed Chouikh, Algeria), about frustrated Acommon denominator of these love and hypocrisy in an Algerian village, are African-Diaspora films, no matter the birthplace among the recent crop of films with this theme­ MORE INFO of the filmmaker, is an Afrocentric sensitivity. a theme pursued since Africa's first feature : Those in the Caribbean draw upon a knowledge Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl (La Noire de ... ), • Dates of the 5th Journees du cinema Afri­ of oppressive and repressive political and in 1966. All of Sembene's features between 1966 cain are April 24-30 in Montreal. For dates in economic realities imposed and legalized by and 1976 put women at the centre of the drama other cities, contact: Vues d' Afrique, 417 St­ European colonization and enslavement of as he pursued his systematic attack on Pierre, Ste. 402, Montreal, Quebec H2Y 2M4. Africans. All in all these African-Diaspora colonialism and its legacies after political TeL: (514) 284-3322. filmmakers, with access to better material independence. conditions (technological and economic) than Despite a host of complex problems dating • In the fall, an exhibition entitled "The Best those currently available in Africa, have used from the '60s beginning of indigenous of the New African Cinema: Africa and the varying aesthetic techniques to analyze African filmmaking in Africa (technology, production, Diaspora ", will tour Canada. The exhibition peoples' resistance to domination - wherever. distribution, exhibition and censorship), the will be previewed at the annual Canadian Af­ all these films deserve wider distribution, New African cinema is alive and well and - albeit rican Studies Association conference in Ot­ commercial and noncommercial, than they have with zigs and zags - growing, expanding and tawa, May 10-13. Contact: 440 Mt. Stephen, Suite 21, Montreal, Que. H3Y 2X6. Tel.: thus far received. evolving. London-based film cooperatives (CEDDO, Jim Pine's observation about African and other (514) 989-9917. Or leave message for Dr. Sankofo, Black Audio) with multi-year marginalised films in Britain applies equally to Weaver at the UniversM de Montreal (514) subsidization for production and distribution Canada, which has seen in the last decade a 343-6182.

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