Burkina Faso - African Film Festival at Ouagadougou

February 1995
A million people attended the 25th Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It is Africa's most important cultural event, second only to the annual soccer championships. Winnie Mandela and other leading African lights are expected to attend. South Africa takes part officially for the first time. Watch a film in an African city and the chances are it will be open-air with giant insects swooping overhead and an enthusiastic audience shouting encouragement at the screen. In a continent with an illiterate majority and few televisions, the importance of cinema cannot be ignored. It has become a source of great national pride, and for many it is helping to re-establish a post-colonial cultural identity. 1995 is the international centenary of cinema, and in commemoration FESPACO is opening the first ever African film archive.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Burkina
• Faso
• African
• Film
• Festival
• at
• Ouagadougou
• news
• documentary
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[LadyLibraNMore]

The country is poor? According to whom? I saw people smiling & laughing they appear to be very healthy & in good shape. They live off & work the land that their people have existed on since before recorded history. I think that Burkino Faso's wealth is unmeasurable.

[GvannD]

They may be poor, but they look extremely happy. More happy than many of the Western and Europeans countries where we have the highest suicidal rate. Africa still seems like the land of paradise...

[GCMaxProductions]

I'm sick of getting fraud spam emails from you ooga da booga bastards claiming that you have millions for me and all I have to do is supply my details... go get a fucking job you lazy filthy savages and stop trying to do the internet crime thing cos it's clearly not working out for you.

[LeahTVdotcom]

Aloha from Hawaii, I enjoyed this report.

Meric

[shercharb123]

Not everyone is poor in Africa! Do some research...

[DenEColt]

I remember seeing Yaaba at the Auckland Film Festival sometime in the 1990s. It blew me away then and I still think of it fondly. I've attended film festivals almost every year since 1972 plus mainstream releases. That's a lot of films but I would still play Yaaba very high on my list of favourites. Its pacing, its framing, its simplicity all came together to make a miraculous piece of moviemaking.

[throbule]

I have travelled all over Africa and the one outstanding thing is the compassion between the people in every country I visited, They talk to strangers and share their food with you, and nothing to too much trouble for them if you need help.

Africans are not all poor - its just that we westerners are all too rich by comparison.

We never see the good news of African on TV or in the media, we only are shown the bad.

That is so wrong and very sad.

Viva Africa!

[vikingazul]

It's pity that the sound is out of sync - The name Burkina Faso - the land of upright men - was given to the country by President Thomas Sankara, who fought against colonialism, supported women's rights & was assassinated in 1987 in a coup led by his friend & actual president Blaise Campoaré ....

[GILMORGAN1]

We have talents, we have potentials, we have goals to achieve, we can show or do more....But we have like chains on feet and hands, thinking we are free...We don´t need any help to think about our future!But AFRICA needs more " know How and more technologies from the White Continent in order to be able to move forward....!

[bfree2live]

i'll always appreciate burkino faso for it commitment to film. with the growth of home movies, i want films to be apart of our cultural landscape as well.