Ousmane Sembene © FDC / T. Leibreich
Rendez-vous with Ousmane Sembene
"I don't know why I film but I am inhabited by a whole people and I must bear witness to my epoch." Ousmane Sembene, pioneer of African cinema, will be present on Sunday, May 15th in the Buñuel Theatre to hold a Cinema Masterclass. The opportunity for the Senegalese director to come back on his career, his numerous journeys in Africa and discuss with the public about the impact of cinema on our representations and believes.
Born in 1923 in Senegal, Sembene Ousmane is a pioneer of African cinema, using filmmaking as a means to show a "different Africa" and share his socio-political view of the continent. Mobilized in the Senegales infantry in 1942, he then arrives in Marseille illegally in 1946, where he joins the CGT union and the French Communist Party. It is at this time that he discovers literature (Le Docker Noir, 1956; Ô pays, mon beau peuple, 1957; Les Bouts de bois de Dieu, 1960). At age 38, he turns to filmmaking, studies at the Gorki studio in Moscow and, in 1966, makes La Noire de…, the first African feature film. His films fight for the preservation of his people's identity, (Ceddo, 1976; Le Camp de Thiaroye, 1988). Since 1999, his triptych Héroïsme au quotidien pays tributes to African women with Faat Kiné and Mooladé (awarded Un certain regard in 2004). La COnfrérie des Rats is currently in development. although he has won many prizes, Sembene Ousmane, untiring, still traves all over Africa, from village ti village, to show his films and continue his dialogue with his people.
“I had been everywhere to experience peoples, ethic groups, cultures. I was forty years old and wanted to make films. I wanted to give a different impression of Africa. As our culture is oral, i wanted to show reality through masks, dance, representation. Publishing a book written in French only reaches a minority of people, whereas with a film one can do “Kino Pravda”, like Dziga Vertov, fairground cinema that allows one to converse with people, to exchange ideas.”
