No awards for African cinema at the 64th Cannes film festival. This should not be surprising if we consider the participations coming from the black continent. They are indeed few but it says a lot about a new generation of directors.
Three films only were running for prices : Skoonheid by Oliver Hemanus from South Africa for the Un Certain Regard section, No more fear by Tunisian filmmaker Mourad Ben Cheikh fo the Golden Camera and the Moroccan young filmmaker Leila Kilani was in the competition of the Directors Fortnight.
New generation to take over
It is not necessarily a problem of quality of these films, but it is logic : less you have films less you have a chance to get any price.
The Tunisian film is selected more because it is about the last events in the country. It is in fact part of a tribute to the Jasmine Revolution, but since it is a debut it could run for the price of this category, the Golden Camera.
The two other filmmakers mentioned above are also young. Hermanus and Kilani presented their second features only.
This is a good sign even though none had a price. If these directors could make it and be at that level in this big festival, they still have more chance in the future to go further.
The sections where they are selected, are considered as different entrances to the official selection. It is logic that everyone needs some time to be mature. One day we will see them in the competition, like their elder African filmmakers such as Cissé, Haroun, Cissako and so on.
Highlighting the mood for revolutions
But Cannes is not only a competition. It is a huge platform for the whole world cinema. That’s why out of these participations it was talked about Africa in many other promotional events.
The first attraction was the homage given to Tunisia and Egypt. This latter was the invited country this year. It opened a new program consisting in inviting a country every year as Guest of the festival.
In addition to that, the festival wanted to give a tribute to the Egyptian revolution via a special screening of 10 shorts telling the story of the 18 days of the sit in of tahrir square (centre of Cairo) and which lead to the fall of the former president Hosni Moubarak.
Some Tunisian shorts were also screened for the same reason. Few young directors were invited to present their films in the so-called Short Film Corner, a section intended to promote short films from all over the world.
Homage’s
Two Tunisian personalities were honored at the occasion of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. These are the kind of activities organized somehow by official institutions to make their show in fact.
The first one is the Tunisian director Nouri Bouzid. He received the medal of arts and culture from the French minister of culture, Frederique Mitterrand. He succeeds to people like Sotigui Kouyate, Mustapha Alassane....
The second, Mr. Tahar Cheriaa, is a pioneer of African cinema who fought for united Africa and who passed away last November. The ceremony was organized by the International Organization of the Francophonie because he was one of its employee for many years.
He is the founder, together with Ousmane Sembene, of The Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia (1966) and the FESPACO in Burkina Faso (1969). They shared the dream of a prosperous African cinema.
During the ceremony of the homage, people could discover the portrait of the man in a documentary called Tahar Cheriaa ander the shadow of the Baobab by Tunisian photographer and director Mohammed Challouf.
The film focuses on the ideas of the man and the projects he was involved in. Via interviews and archives, it gives a complete portrait of the man and his fight for African cinema and for the whole cinema of the South.
Promotion spaces
Far away from the tributes and official ceremonies, one could meet African professionals in many spaces.
One of them is the “Village International”. It is a huge park on the very beautiful beach of the cote d’azur where delegations can set their pavilions (tents) and proceed to promote the cinema of their countries.
Few African countries used to be represented there, but the number is diminishing. You could still find the pavilion of Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco, but there is no more Nigerian pavilion for instance.
In the Cinema of the World Pavilion, African space is also getting smaller and smaller. We used to meet more professionals from Africa when it was called Cinema of the South pavilion.
The concurrence is bigger when, in addition to south Americans, you have to face the Eastern and Central European cinemas. You can never be at the same level of competitiveness.
Few projects were selected to participate to the workshop organized by the pavilion such as Indochine trace of a Mother by Idrissou Mora Kpai from Benin, Ashes of Pardon by Gilbert Ndunga Nsangato and Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza from Congo and Dakar Trottoirs by Hubert Laba Ndao from Senegal
The idea is that these authors can meet producers and financers to pitch their projects with a very minor hope that they get some pecuniary help.
Some others have more chance and could profit from the pavilion of the world cinema and have some screenings in the market. This is the case of the Lion’s point of view a documentary made by the Senegalese rapper Didier Awadi about the neo-colonial position of the black continent.
The Business platform
Africans come to Cannes to look for possible financial partners whereas those from other parts of the world come to sell their production and make money. There is no balance.
In the market which is the biggest part of the festival, out of 600 exhibitors only three are coming from Africa : Department of Film Services - Kenya, Film Clinic - Egypt and Sindbad Productions - Tunisia.
Other initiatives show how difficult for Africans to be part of this huge fete. That’s the challenge of the professionals from Cameroun by organizing a special event dedicated to promote the image of their country.
The minister of culture of Cameroun and a delegation of professionals like the well known Bassek Ba Kobhio, invited the world press to a presentation of their national plan called “shooting in Cameroun”. The idea is to invite productions to use the landscape of the country as shooting sets for their films.
“The government of Cameroun is willing to make all kinds of facilities to foreign productions in order to help them shooting in the most optimal conditions”, declared the minister of culture.
As for Bassek Ba Kobhio, filmmaker and director of Black Screens Film Festival, he highlighted the fact that shooting in Cameroun is an opportunity to foreign productions and it is also meant to help the local productions.
Ba Kobhio is in fact talking on behalf of all the African professionals. When African countries are not willing to take seriously the film industry and invest in it, only foreign investments are able to bring some hope to make some African films possible.
Unfortunately as far as we count on this hope, we keep on depending from the North and this is definitely not fair.
The new generation will have unfortunately to face this handicap also.
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