On Tracking World Cinema: African Cinema at Film Festivals

On Tracking World Cinema:African Cinema at Film Festivals Manthia Diawara (bio) The Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) convened during the thirteenth edition of the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) to reassess, among other things, the leadership of the filmmakers' association, the role of FESPACO and other festivals in promoting African cinema, and the production and distribution of films. The lack of a public for African cinema in Africa is a complex issue. It is true that the colonization of African screens by American and Kung Fu films is the main reason why African films are not seen in Africa. In fact, this situation is not unique to Africa, as it prevails in European countries, as well as Latin America and Asia, where American films take the larger share of the market, and often relegate national films to art movie theaters. The FEPACI congress recommended quotas and "special tax incentives" to encourage the distribution of African films in Africa. Furthermore, they divided the continent into six sub-regions (East, North, North-West, SouthWest, Central, and Southern), with regional secretaries to oversee distribution activities. The problem with this compartmentalization of the continent in terms of film distribution is that it is utopian in many regards. The nation-state has failed in Africa, and it is increasingly becoming difficult to use it as the basis for organizing an economic unit such as film distribution. Individual countries do not collaborate with a decision that is not favorable to the national interest (i.e., the interest of the ruling party) or to bilateral relations with such Western countries as France and the United States which are opposed to quotas. African cinema exists in exile. Gaston Kabore, the General Secretary of FEPACI, was criticized for traveling too often to Europe and America on behalf of African cinema, and doing little networking in Africa. More African films are seen in Europe and America than in Africa. In fact, an African filmmaker told me that the recent African Film Festival organized in New York was more important to him than FESPACO, because African films have a better market in America than Africa. Yet other filmmakers criticize the [End Page 48] proliferation of African film festivals everywhere in Europe and America, for they do not always have the interest of African cinema as their main goal. FESPACO used to look favorably upon Le festival des trois continents à Nantes, Le Festival d'Amiens, (France), the Milan Festival of African Cinema (Italy), and Vues d'Afrique in Montreal (Canada) as sister festivals. Today, FESPACO considers some of these festivals as threats to its own growth into an annual and international festival. Since the best African films are screened at these European and American festivals, not to mention the ones that get into the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and London film festivals, filmmakers no longer look to FESPACO for the premiere of their films. These European and American film festivals also contribute to the "ghettoization" of African films, because they only use them for the purposes of multiculturalism as required by their own citizens. The cultural industry around African cinema is growing larger and larger, generating new festivals in every corner of the world, but, from the point of view of the film industry, African cinema is no more important than it was ten or fifteen years ago: there are no production nor distribution structures in place. The realities are those of an auteur cinema with diversified funding sources coming mainly out of Europe. African Cinema in Ouagadougou Ironically, the most ambivalent festival for African film today is FESPACO. Ask any African filmmaker what is the meaning of FESPACO, and he or she will tell you that "FESPACO is our own, Ouagadougou is the home of African cinema, I don't feel marginalized here." It is the only film festival devoted to Pan-African cinema, a festival that takes seriously the task of nurturing, publicizing, and celebrating African films. Ouagadougou is the place to meet filmmakers from other countries, compare notes on films, and exchange information on funding sources. FESPACO is also a home-coming and a family reunion for filmmakers, a chance to meet old friends in the...

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