Out of Fespaco
Helmut Groschup, for Isola Cinema
African filmmaking is too often equated with film production from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. It is true, of course, that these countries have produced many excellent directors, such as Djibril Diop Mambéty from Dakar, Bamako’s Souleyman Cissé and Idrissa Ouédraogo from Ouagadougou. Yet the cinema of these countries is largely influenced by the traditions of their colonial past. Besides being critical, it also reflects a conformity which is the inevitable result of economic restrictions. Being involved in filmmaking means, first and foremost, complying with the dictates of the market and with production demands.
The colonial powers have left their mark everywhere, from aesthetics to budget considerations. Independent film, such as may be found here and there in Europe or the USA, does not exist in Africa. On the one hand, African film artists are bound by the conditions of production in their national film industry (to some extent, this is also the case in Latin America). On the other hand, there is a strong tendency to cater to European and North American co-producers in order to get a film made. The inequality and dependency inherent in such relations are often reflected in the content of these films, whether in the form of allegiance to egotistical political leaders such as Blaise Compaoré, or by paying lip service to European development projects and the theories they are based on.
The aforementioned directors are exceptions to this rule. They are all Africans to the core, in the literal sense of a word which is also used to describe the continent’s largest film festival, Fespaco – Pan-African. Yet filmmakers such as Ouédraogo and Cissé have failed in their attempts to produce films on South African topics, being Francophone themselves. Although well-received in Europe, Cissé’s Waati was alien to African audiences. Mambéty is an isolated case, without any evident precursors or apparent followers. His short films Le Franc and La petite vendeuse de soleil are masterpieces, still unmatched in Africa or elsewhere. These two films reveal much more about Africa than can be seen at any one biennial festival in Ouagadougou.
Ivory Coast is a country on the margins of West African film production. Although it once enjoyed close relations with the Subsaharan countries, it became an outsider after the outbreak of civil war. It seems that the times when Roger Gnoan M’Bala could receive the Étalon de Yennenga award (for his 1993 film Au nom du Christ) are long gone. This is clearly evident from Fespaco’s invitations policy. Disputes over colonial succession have resulted in conflict between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. As a model recipient of international development support, the former has a president who boldly promotes his country’s cinema (mostly Francophone and non-independent). The president of its southern neighbour has fallen out of favour with Europe, especially France. Yet he is also a great supporter of film art, especially of short films, and has founded the International Festival of Short Films in Abidjan. The festival, organised by Hanny Tchelley, alternates with Fespaco every other year.
To counterbalance the predominating influence of Fespaco, Izola and Innsbruck will host the two main protagonists of Abidjan’s film scene. Kooperativ-A will be showcasing M’Bala’s Adanggaman – a film that was ignored by Euro-African audiences, but whose candid view of the standard clichés of postcolonial progress is fascinating. Seldom has an African film met with such opposition from African as well as European connoisseurs, and in showing it we are aware that we alone cannot break such resistance. The film, co-financed by Switzerland’s Amka Films Productions, has something Hollywood about it. Nonetheless it is an independent production and, therefore, represents an exception in African cinema. Credit for the superb cinematography goes to Algeria’s Mohammed Soudani, who will be among the guests in both Izola and Innsbruck.
Soudani is fighting for the same ideals as these two small festivals, which are not all about awards, prestige and red carpets, but rather about developing shared ideas. Too many small film festivals try to copy larger, more prominent ones, perhaps for the same reasons that have kept African filmmaking from becoming independent. By presenting M’Bala’s films and talking to actress and producer Hanny Tchelley, we hope to offer some insight on new aspects in African filmmaking. There are a growing number of women in Africa with the power to decide not only in front of the camera, but behind it as well. A new generation is on the rise, striving to move beyond the missionary goals of religious groups and the patronizing ideas of development workers. They will restore life and colour to African cinema, courageously liberating it from the burden of postcolonial arrogance. Idrissa Ouédraogo’s takeover of Cinema Burkina in Ouagadougou is proof of this new trend, as are the films of Abderrahmane Sissako, the doyen of African laic filmmaking. The fact is that Africa is not just black, it’s full of colour.
