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| Title: | Sembčne!: the inspiring story of the father of African cinema |
| Editors: | Gadjigo, Samba Silverman, Jason |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Language: | English |
| City: | New York, NY |
| Publisher: | Kino Lorber |
| Geographic term: | Senegal |
| Subjects: | filmmakers cinema film history documentary films (form) videos (form) |
| About person: | Sembčne Ousmane (1923-2007) |
| Link: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSpIvrfUMac |
| Abstract: | This documentary tells the story of Ousmane Sembčne (1923, Senegal) the 'father of African cinema', the dockworker and self-taught novelist who fought a fifty-year-long battle to give African stories to Africans. During a 1961 tour of Africa, then exploding with revolutionary fervor, creative possibility and post-colonial backlash, Sembčne recognized that African people could not be effectively reached through written literature. Cinema, however, could tell the essential stories of Africa to the African people. Sembčne chose to devote his energies to creating emancipating and restorative images for the African people. He enrolled in a filmmaking program at Moscow's Gorki Studios, and, in 1963, premiered the short 'Borom Sarret', a film that transformed Africa from a continent of media consumers into one with the potential to produce them. Throughout the next fourty years, Sembčne remained keenly aware of his entwined roles as artist and revolutionary, creating powerful works infused with his deep sense of social responsibility, which made him clash with the authorities in power. 'Ceddo', which was seen as an attack on islam, was banned in Senegal and Sembčne did not make any film for ten years. His next film 'Camp de Thiaroye', denouncing the massacre of black Senegalese soldiers who had fought in World War II, was banned in France. The story is told through the experiences of colleague and biographer Samba Gadjigo, using rare archival footage and scenes of Sembčne's films. [Abstract reproduced from dvd-video] |