SISTERS OF THE SCREEN - AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA

Credits

Name: SISTERS OF THE SCREEN - AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA

Country: USA

Year of publication: 2002

Format: digital; DCP

Color: color

Language : OF m. dt. UT

Duration: 73 Minuten

Direction: Ellerson, Beti

Camera: Poulenc, Christophe

Editing: Ellerson, Beti; Poulenc, Christophe

Guest: Ellerson, Beti; Mbeka Phoba, Monique

Abstract

A homage to the women who shaped African cinema in the first three decades after independence, but who were not afforded the same recognition as the male filmmakers of their generation. With film excerpts and interviews, Beti Ellerson introduces female directors such as the Senegalese Safi Faye, who was the first sub-Saharan woman to shoot feature films, and Fanta Régina Nacro, who was the first to do so in Burkina Faso, which is home to the FESPACO pan-African film festival. We also hear from younger directors such as Anna Mungai from Kenya and Ngozi Onwurah from Nigeria, as well as pioneers from the diaspora, such as Sarah Maldoror from Guadeloupe, who shot her classic film SAMBIZANGA during the Angolan War of Independence. Ellerson also looks at the subject of cultural authenticity, after black female filmmakers from the diaspora were asked to leave the first networking meeting of women at the FESPACO in Ouagadougou in 1991, because it was only open to directors from African countries.