JCC; the lost vocation

Every two years a special event takes place in Tunis (Tunisia) since 1966. It is called Carthage Film Days. This year the 23rd edition was held from October the 23rd to 31st and there was somehow a bad feeling of a lost vocation of the event. One could notice obviously and regrettably.
This film festival was created by African pioneers in the sixty’s. One of them, M. Tahar Cheriaa made his last appearance one evening during the festival when an association called Cultural association Africa-Mediterranée decided to give him a tribute. Few days later we knew that he passed away. The festival missed even to say good bye in a proper way to his founder and creator.
It seems, after the death of Henry Duparc (Ivory Coast) Sembene Ousmane (Senegal), Sotigui Kouyaté (Mali), that a generation is disappearing. The worse is that a spirit and a kind of ideas are also going away.
As in every edition and according to the philosophy of the festival, Cartage Film Days should be a festival with a special focus on two cultural branches of Tunisian identity : African and Arab cinema. Unfortunately, one could notice the obvious tendency of the directors to focus more and more on the Arab part.
The festival is then less colored, let’s say. Going around in the festival areas you could hardly meet black African professionals. Their numbers during the last editions is getting smaller and smaller. This means a lot.
Those who remember the eighty’s could witness this regression. Film lovers remember with nostalgia the first price of this festival for ever (the golden Tanit) when Sembene Ousmane participated at the first afro-arab competition here in Tunis in 1966.
The eighty’s where the years where professionals from the north of Africa and from the sub-Saharan area could meet in the hotels of the Tunisian capital and talk about the ways to promote their image, and to fight together against the imperialist image of the north.
Something is lost. This is the terrible conclusion one could make.
The program contains in fact films from both regions, in all sections. But there is no balance at all. As a matter of fact only three black countries where represented in the official competition of features: South Africa with State of violence by Khalo Matabene and Shirley Adams by Olivier Hermanus, Uganda with Imani by Caroline Kamya, and Kenya with Soul Boy by Hawa Essuman. This focal competition contains fourteen films.
As for the rest we notice the presence of big production countries like South Africa and Egypt with two features each in the competition and the organizing country, Tunisia, with three films. Clearly the festival looks more to the north, or the east but surely less to the south.
The screening the A screaming Man by Chadian film maker Mahamet-Saleh Haroun in the opening ceremony, is supposed to be a nice alibi for the organizers to compensate the deficient balance of the official selection, and the partisan prejudiced vision of this edition.
The tribute to Malian actor Sotigui Kouyaté could not help neither. His program was one among five others dedicated to Arab and North African artists : Rachid Bouchared (Algeria), Hyam Abbas (Palestine), Ghassan Salahab (Liban), Atyat Abnoudi (Egypt).
Of course when you make this kind of statement, you can’t be surprised by the final result. Generally the awards are depending of the quality of the selection. In addition to that, it seems that the jury of the 23rd edition of the Carthage Film Days, headed by Haitian film maker Raoul Peck, was coherent with the general atmosphere of the festival.
The three main awards went to Microphone by Ahmad Abdalla (Egypt) Golden Tanit, Voyage to Algers by Brahim Bahloul (Algeria) Silver Tanit and The Mosque by Daoud Aouled Syad (Maroc). It would have been better to dedicate this edition to North African cinema, then.
Never by the past, and during more than forty years, was the northern absurd orientation so heavily noticed.
Once upon a time, Africa was united around film culture and industry. It seems that this was a dream like a lot of other things. Carthage Film Days had even a twin brother, the fespaco, in Ouagadougou. It seems also that things are going to the other direction and North African cinema is no more considered really as part of African image. The next edition is announced for the end of February. Let’s wait and see.