Tick bite fever
23 March 2014 10:07 PM GMT
João, please tell us, what are the current trends in contemporary African Cinema?
We can speak of three important tendencies in Sub-Saharan Africa. A few months ago, Al Jazeera, the Qatar television station invited three African film directors, to Johannesburg in South Africa for an interview. The programme, the highly popular South2North run by the journalist Redi Tihabi, can still be seen online. The invited directors were Jamil Qubeka who directed Of Good Report, Jean-Pierre Bekolo who directed Le President and I (directed The Battle of Tabatô). Jamil is English-speaking, Bekolo is French-speaking and I speak Portuguese. Jamil did an intimistic fiction and excels in subjectivity, Bekolo shot a documentary in which reality filmed in an objective and experimental manner is in a certain way aesthetisised, and I find myself between documentary and fiction based on post-colonial African identity. Here, such are the three streaks of contemporary African Cinema.
Does African Cinema have an identity of its own; or does it look west ward for recognition/influence?
I am glad, you asked this question, because the matter of identity is an essential theme not only for African cinema, but also as a fundamental question. Please, excuse me if I may seem arrogant, but the truth is that it all began in the year I was born. It was the year in which Léopold Sédar Senghor (which is a name of Portuguese origin meaning master, or sir or lord), the famous President of Senegal announced at the World Festival of Black Arts in Senegal that the artistic pillars of Negritude were: rhythm, repetition and identity. The year in which I was born was also the year in which film director Ousmane Sembène (who is considered to be the father of African Cinema) made Le Noire de. The film gave rise to the 3rd Cinema in Africa, following the Cinema of Hollywood and the Cinema of Art. This designation of 3rd Cinema was an import of the terminology used by Fernando Solanas and Octávio Getino in Latin America. At that time, many things had their origins in Latin America, like the very liberation theories themselves. It was maintained that cinema which was not in line and really new, came from Africa and from the African countries where there was hunger! All this, to give you an affirmative answer to your question. There is, indeed, a strong identity and in case somebody insists that there is a French or American influence, let’s say that this is a loan or an influence that does not have to be paid for on account of the long history of African influence in the arts of the world. Many of the problems Africa has, come from a lack of identity. It is also because of the lack of identity that, our leaders get to sell off our countries...
What are the factors that indicate the growth of African Cinema?
There are indicators that can easily be verified and I would even say measured in practically all areas from the creation to the distribution. In production, the figures are interesting: Approximately 800 films are made per year in Africa. South Africa invests about 14 million dollars in its Cinema. France, within the framework of its programme for valorising cultural diversity, is investing six million dollars in Africa. When it was launched, the European Union’s Programme ACP Cultures+ was supporting African film projects with about eight million euros. This year, apart from my next film, there are 50 other projects for the future. As we know, the UNESCO Report attributes the second place in the world ranking of video production to Nollywood. Africa has important film festivals like the FESPACO in Quagadougou, and every year new festivals arise, as for example the LUXOR Festival next month. Apart from this, there is a handful of African film directors in the pantheon of world cinema, like S Pierre Yaméologo, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Quedraogo, Djibril Diop-Manbéty...
What kind of audience do we have for African Cinema?
We can identify ethnic movie goers who are looking for stories about their own ethnic group and their customs, religious audiences who are looking for stories that have to do with their religion, particularly Christian or Islamic, female spectators interested not only in fiction or romanticism, but also in wrestling like the Papel women in eastern Africa, mestizo spectators, large African groups from the diaspora, but the great majority of the public are young people. Cinema is an important part of the culture of young people who watch movies on DVDs and cell phones, who share films. There are websites of African films. The DVDs are being sold in the streets of the African countries by street sellers, thus reaching an unlimited number of people who choose their films not by directors or actors, but by the stories they tell, thus forcing the street sellers to be real experts of African cinema.
Is there any difference between mainstream cinema and art or commercial variety? Or, what are the different genres of popular African cinema?
Among the various kinds of popular African cinema there are comedies which often use musical and dance numbers which we thought only existed in Indian cinema, there are religious films and documentaries. There is a big difference between the commercial cinema of the Nollywood type, the art cinema of the French-speaking kind and the mainstream English-speaking cinema. Nollywood is not modern in its approach of the story, but it has a characteristic which I believe to be important: 56 per cent of the Nollywood videos are produced in the Igbo (one per cent), Hausa (24 per cent) and Yoruba (31 per cent) languages and not only in English. The commercial industry of Nollywood is sustainable and does not need any financial support, because, with 150 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Thus, the production which is most of all destined to video distribution, with about 1,00,000 copies per film, represents not more than 0.1 per cent of the potential buyers’ market and is, therefore, sustainable. This is not the case with the art films in the rest of Africa, most of all with the documentaries of great quality which need exterior financing and which give substance to what Ousmane Sèmbene said in 1979: ‘An artist has to refuse to sell himself, he has to prove that his role is important, because he incentives reflection by means of films-books, films schools, where the fundamental problems of our historical origins, our cultural dilacerations and our political origins are being placed.’ African Cinema by itself can be classified as a type, but there are also African film directors who simply make international cinema...
Approximately how many movie halls are there, regionally? Do small villages have good access to cinema, as well?
Don’t ask me this question in the context of African cinema, because we are living in a paradoxical time. If, on the one hand, African cinema has never been so strong, with so many new film directors, it has also never been so weak as far as the distribution of movie halls as we know them is concerned. Many movie theatres from the colonial era have been abandoned, understandably because of exactly the reason of having belonged to the colonists. In some African countries the movie halls have simply been transformed into Chinese supermarkets or churches. In eastern Africa, it is the Lebanese who run the few existing movie theaters. The large multiplexes are normally exploited by American companies which distribute but American cinema. In Nigeria, cinema is mostly watched on DVDs. The non-governmental organisations that operate in Africa show a cinema which is generally called ONG Cinema or, if you prefer, ONG coloniser. But there is hope. This year a project has been initiated for the creation of new projection circuits adapted to the economic realities of the African Estates as well as a number of internet portals. There are programs for the distribution and diffusion of African documentaries from film catalogues. Since 2011 ACP itself possesses a support line for the distribution, diffusion and promotion exclusively of African films.
Is African Cinema rich enough to have a global appeal?
There is a phrase, I don’t remember who said it, that ‘the Africans may not have airplanes, cars and technology in abundance, but they can export a whiff of fresh air’. There is another phrase that says ‘the peoples have this and have that, but the Africans have their humanity’. That should give you a hint.
Ruchi Ahuja is a New Delhi-based writer who loves communication. Her current profile includes writing for advertising, editorials and films. Her interests include culture, current affairs and philosophy. Email ID: ruchiahuja29@gmail.com
Conceived by Kalyan Mukherjee, Consulting Editor, Africa Rising
Research & Advertising by Aman Ramrakha
We can speak of three important tendencies in Sub-Saharan Africa. A few months ago, Al Jazeera, the Qatar television station invited three African film directors, to Johannesburg in South Africa for an interview. The programme, the highly popular South2North run by the journalist Redi Tihabi, can still be seen online. The invited directors were Jamil Qubeka who directed Of Good Report, Jean-Pierre Bekolo who directed Le President and I (directed The Battle of Tabatô). Jamil is English-speaking, Bekolo is French-speaking and I speak Portuguese. Jamil did an intimistic fiction and excels in subjectivity, Bekolo shot a documentary in which reality filmed in an objective and experimental manner is in a certain way aesthetisised, and I find myself between documentary and fiction based on post-colonial African identity. Here, such are the three streaks of contemporary African Cinema.
Does African Cinema have an identity of its own; or does it look west ward for recognition/influence?
I am glad, you asked this question, because the matter of identity is an essential theme not only for African cinema, but also as a fundamental question. Please, excuse me if I may seem arrogant, but the truth is that it all began in the year I was born. It was the year in which Léopold Sédar Senghor (which is a name of Portuguese origin meaning master, or sir or lord), the famous President of Senegal announced at the World Festival of Black Arts in Senegal that the artistic pillars of Negritude were: rhythm, repetition and identity. The year in which I was born was also the year in which film director Ousmane Sembène (who is considered to be the father of African Cinema) made Le Noire de. The film gave rise to the 3rd Cinema in Africa, following the Cinema of Hollywood and the Cinema of Art. This designation of 3rd Cinema was an import of the terminology used by Fernando Solanas and Octávio Getino in Latin America. At that time, many things had their origins in Latin America, like the very liberation theories themselves. It was maintained that cinema which was not in line and really new, came from Africa and from the African countries where there was hunger! All this, to give you an affirmative answer to your question. There is, indeed, a strong identity and in case somebody insists that there is a French or American influence, let’s say that this is a loan or an influence that does not have to be paid for on account of the long history of African influence in the arts of the world. Many of the problems Africa has, come from a lack of identity. It is also because of the lack of identity that, our leaders get to sell off our countries...
What are the factors that indicate the growth of African Cinema?
There are indicators that can easily be verified and I would even say measured in practically all areas from the creation to the distribution. In production, the figures are interesting: Approximately 800 films are made per year in Africa. South Africa invests about 14 million dollars in its Cinema. France, within the framework of its programme for valorising cultural diversity, is investing six million dollars in Africa. When it was launched, the European Union’s Programme ACP Cultures+ was supporting African film projects with about eight million euros. This year, apart from my next film, there are 50 other projects for the future. As we know, the UNESCO Report attributes the second place in the world ranking of video production to Nollywood. Africa has important film festivals like the FESPACO in Quagadougou, and every year new festivals arise, as for example the LUXOR Festival next month. Apart from this, there is a handful of African film directors in the pantheon of world cinema, like S Pierre Yaméologo, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Quedraogo, Djibril Diop-Manbéty...
What kind of audience do we have for African Cinema?
We can identify ethnic movie goers who are looking for stories about their own ethnic group and their customs, religious audiences who are looking for stories that have to do with their religion, particularly Christian or Islamic, female spectators interested not only in fiction or romanticism, but also in wrestling like the Papel women in eastern Africa, mestizo spectators, large African groups from the diaspora, but the great majority of the public are young people. Cinema is an important part of the culture of young people who watch movies on DVDs and cell phones, who share films. There are websites of African films. The DVDs are being sold in the streets of the African countries by street sellers, thus reaching an unlimited number of people who choose their films not by directors or actors, but by the stories they tell, thus forcing the street sellers to be real experts of African cinema.
Is there any difference between mainstream cinema and art or commercial variety? Or, what are the different genres of popular African cinema?
Among the various kinds of popular African cinema there are comedies which often use musical and dance numbers which we thought only existed in Indian cinema, there are religious films and documentaries. There is a big difference between the commercial cinema of the Nollywood type, the art cinema of the French-speaking kind and the mainstream English-speaking cinema. Nollywood is not modern in its approach of the story, but it has a characteristic which I believe to be important: 56 per cent of the Nollywood videos are produced in the Igbo (one per cent), Hausa (24 per cent) and Yoruba (31 per cent) languages and not only in English. The commercial industry of Nollywood is sustainable and does not need any financial support, because, with 150 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Thus, the production which is most of all destined to video distribution, with about 1,00,000 copies per film, represents not more than 0.1 per cent of the potential buyers’ market and is, therefore, sustainable. This is not the case with the art films in the rest of Africa, most of all with the documentaries of great quality which need exterior financing and which give substance to what Ousmane Sèmbene said in 1979: ‘An artist has to refuse to sell himself, he has to prove that his role is important, because he incentives reflection by means of films-books, films schools, where the fundamental problems of our historical origins, our cultural dilacerations and our political origins are being placed.’ African Cinema by itself can be classified as a type, but there are also African film directors who simply make international cinema...
Approximately how many movie halls are there, regionally? Do small villages have good access to cinema, as well?
Don’t ask me this question in the context of African cinema, because we are living in a paradoxical time. If, on the one hand, African cinema has never been so strong, with so many new film directors, it has also never been so weak as far as the distribution of movie halls as we know them is concerned. Many movie theatres from the colonial era have been abandoned, understandably because of exactly the reason of having belonged to the colonists. In some African countries the movie halls have simply been transformed into Chinese supermarkets or churches. In eastern Africa, it is the Lebanese who run the few existing movie theaters. The large multiplexes are normally exploited by American companies which distribute but American cinema. In Nigeria, cinema is mostly watched on DVDs. The non-governmental organisations that operate in Africa show a cinema which is generally called ONG Cinema or, if you prefer, ONG coloniser. But there is hope. This year a project has been initiated for the creation of new projection circuits adapted to the economic realities of the African Estates as well as a number of internet portals. There are programs for the distribution and diffusion of African documentaries from film catalogues. Since 2011 ACP itself possesses a support line for the distribution, diffusion and promotion exclusively of African films.
Is African Cinema rich enough to have a global appeal?
There is a phrase, I don’t remember who said it, that ‘the Africans may not have airplanes, cars and technology in abundance, but they can export a whiff of fresh air’. There is another phrase that says ‘the peoples have this and have that, but the Africans have their humanity’. That should give you a hint.
Ruchi Ahuja is a New Delhi-based writer who loves communication. Her current profile includes writing for advertising, editorials and films. Her interests include culture, current affairs and philosophy. Email ID: ruchiahuja29@gmail.com
Conceived by Kalyan Mukherjee, Consulting Editor, Africa Rising
Research & Advertising by Aman Ramrakha
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