Caméra d’Afrique

For decades, the only films made in Africa were produced by the colonial rulers. Critic and filmmaker Ferid Boughedir places the beginning of African cinema in 1963, with the appearance of Ousmane Sambène’s Borom Sarret: “For the first time, Africa was portrayed from within.”

Boughedir provides an essential retrospective of the first 20 years of independent African cinema, in parallel with the African struggle for independence. The film features striking excerpts as well as interviews with makers, including Djibril Diop-Mambety and Souleymane Cisse. Boughedir thus draws thematic connections between directors who produced their films independently and in entirely different locations.

He places these films within the broader cultural context of cinema, highlighting the first film festivals in Tunis and Ouagadougou, which became important platforms, but also the bitter fact that in their own countries the makers received hardly any support, and often no distribution at all, thus remaining dependent on the West. As filmmaker Med Hondo pointedly describes it: “The development of underdevelopment.”