Like the Egyptian Morad Mostafa, the Rwandan Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo and the Burkinabè Boubacar Sangaré carry film projects from the African continent, supported this year by the Cinema Factory. The program, developed among others by the Institut français and which is deployed in particular during the Cannes Film Festival, aims to support the “young creation from southern countries on the international market”. Interview with Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo and Boubacar Sangaré on the Croisette.
Franceinfo: how did you discover La Fabrique and why did you apply?
Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo: I got to know the Fabrique last year. I was here at the Festival to participate in an activity of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and I had participated in a film on which I had worked, Neptune Frost, presented at the Fortnight. I met my current producer, Samantha (Biffot), who was on the program. Others had also told me about the Factory. At the stage where I was in my project, I needed to meet producers and this program offered me the possibility of understanding how it works internationally and the mechanisms of co-production. I applied in November 2021 and my project was accepted. I have been working on it since 2015. It talks about justice after the genocide, in particular the involvement of women in this process and the price they paid in this process of living together again. Benimana is a reflection on how political decisions impact us individually and what it costs us to be part of the community.
Boubacar Sangare: I discovered La Fabrique in 2016. When developing my current project, we said to ourselves that it needed an international co-production, even if it has something intimately African about it. Especially since one of the characters lives in Italy. We also wanted to give the project an international dimension. This is why we submitted our application which was accepted at the end of last year. Burkina Faso had already had two projects selected at La Fabrique. We come with the hope of publicizing our project and seeking partners, both for co-production and purchase. Djéliya, Memory of the Mandingo is the only documentary in the selection. It is a documentary road-movie that tells the story of a young griot, who leaves his home in Mali because he is an orphan and tries to cross the territory of the Mandinka empire of the 23rd century. His quest is linked to learning the art of the griot but it is also a quest to find the father he no longer has. The film describes the reality and the challenges of life in these territories confronted today with modernism.
Do you think that African cinema cannot exist without co-production? If so, isn’t this situation dangerous?
MC.D: as auteur cinema no longer pays and we don’t yet have the funds locally to finance a project 100%, we have to appeal to the industry. That’s why it’s important that co-production exists because it’s a boost in terms of technical issues and funding. That’s part of what will make for a good movie.
SB: following the same logic, I would say that co-production seen solely as a financial contribution from the North to the South is a totally erroneous perception of the approach. Co-production is supposed to bring together people who can contribute technically, artistically and financially to a film, this contribution being able to open up local markets to a film which has international potential. Co-production is really a cooperation, a collaboration on a project that offers several nationalities to a film and thus allows it to have a wider distribution. We have been working on our project for nine years, if today someone brings more money to it than us and wants to be majority co-producer, we will also have to assess the time we have invested in it. There is always a balance to be struck and it is this balance that defines co-production. A risk could exist if the relationship is distorted and if there is no frank collaboration.
MC.D: we always arrive at the same problem, namely the way in which we value our contribution, which is not pecuniary. Often, it is the West that finances, but the idea also counts…
BS: the idea and the time spent developing it…
Burkina Faso has been organizing Fespaco for decades. One would have hoped for a greater development of the film industry in this country from this event. Unlike Rwanda in recent years which, with the Golden Stallion awarded to Joël Karekezi for “The Mercy of the Jungle”, now seems very active in the seventh art. In each of your countries, what has Fespaco finally changed for the cinema?
BS: in the past, Burkinabe cinema was part of a development process and it was renowned. In West Africa, we didn’t shoot without a Burkinabe camera or without a Burkinabe professional. This is still true today. The approach in Burkina was to finance films in the run-up to Fespaco, but this remains a conception of the development of a film industry linked to this festival, which remains a platform. Instead, we should promote initiatives that allow the development of an industry that will contribute, over time, to the emergence and explosion of talent, just like the creative industry. The Fespaco is a plus but it should not be an end in itself. Today in West Africa, a region that I know well, we are not part of a real development process. In Senegal, for example, the president decided to make billions available to the cinema after Senegalese films won trophies. If the future and the financing of cinema depend on the goodwill of a president who puts his hand in his pocket when he wants, we have a problem. I am thinking today, as part of my thesis, about the establishment of a single French-speaking market in West Africa within the West African Monetary Union (Umoa). My approach is legal: you have to put in place a basic structure that will boost a circular economy that will work nationally and regionally. Festivals will then be showcases and not ends in themselves.
MC.D: in Rwanda, before the Etalon d’or, there was already a desire on the part of the Rwandan state to support cinema. Today, things seem to be coming to fruition. Moreover, there are many young people who want to make films, even if it is with their own means. It gives a certain freedom and that’s what makes it move. Everyone tells the story they want: they take their camera and ask their friends. We form a collective.
What does it mean to you to be at La Fabrique during the Cannes Film Festival which welcomes very few African films in the official selection…
MC.D: African is not a nationality (laughs)! There are films from Burkina Faso, Rwanda… As for arriving in competition at Cannes, it must be remembered that it is the festivals that choose. And when a film is not chosen, that does not mean that it is not good if it did not come to Cannes. This is what blocks filmmakers from the continent who tend to conform to what is selected by the Cannes Film Festival and therefore to do the same thing. “Films that show in Cannes”, we often hear this in conversations. They put us in a box like you just did by saying “African” films… I come from Rwanda, Boubacar from Burkina… There is a history of cinema in each country and the fact that the films produced do not don’t show at Cannes doesn’t mean that they don’t tell things. The problem, to use an expression from Tyler Perry (African-American filmmaker and producer), is that we don’t prepare our table but we always wait to be invited (laughs)! If each State took initiatives, there would not be a generation of African filmmakers who say to themselves: “I have to make a film which must be in Cannes.” There would rather be young filmmakers who would say: “I’m going to make a film that’s going to be at the Fespaco.” Me neither, I do not say this famous sentence. I don’t make a film that goes to Fespaco, I make a film that must be on the market, that must be seen and generate resources. And Cannes is part of that and that doesn’t prevent me from applying to this festival. But I don’t think the Factory doesn’t give a passport to go to Cannes (laughs). However, being there gives visibility to your project. This allows you to meet people, the different partners are reassured about the quality of the project because it has already been selected.
BS: first of all, a film is never African, it has one or more nationalities: it is Burkinabè or, for example, Malian and French. We don’t say a European film, we rather say a French film, a Swedish film… Labeling African cinema… it’s cinema, period! Then, if the 54 African states produced even one film a year, they couldn’t all be at the Cannes Film Festival. Coming to Cannes is not necessarily a mandatory destination. The most important thing is to be able to make films that are seen. For filmmakers, especially when they are independent like us, what matters is that the message and the desire that we carry are shared as much as possible, wherever the film will be shown in the world. Going to a festival and winning a grand prize has become the stake of a competition between filmmakers and we relegate to the background the primary vocation of cinema, that of sharing ideas.
MC.D: that should be a bonus!
BS: it’s true !
For you, is there a difference between a film made by a filmmaker from the diaspora or a filmmaker who lives at home on the continent?
MC.D: your question makes me think of African-Americans who fight for the cause of blacks but when they are questioned about the fate of blacks who live on the continent, it seems that it is not the same thing. This always refers to this famous “African films” box. It shouldn’t exist because each filmmaker has their own perspective.
BS: it always remains a question of ambition and personal commitment. I was born in Burkina, I grew up there and I have lived in France for seven years. I don’t think anyone can tell me that I’m not legitimate to make a film on the continent or in France. I always do it from my perspective and that’s what matters.