The recent successes of Beninese producer Faissol Gnonlonfin, who co-produced the film Freda by Haitian Gessica Géneus supported by director Francis Ford Coppola in his race for the 2022 Oscars, seem a good omen for Benin cinema. “His career is now a source of inspiration”, believes the Franco-Beninese actress Tella Kpomahou who has felt for a few months the need to contribute to a new dynamic in the sector.
Her recent experience as a juror in the Series section of the last edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) will have confirmed her. Since the end of the biggest meeting of African cinema in Burkina Faso, Tella Kpomahou has been thinking more about the best way to contribute to the development of the seventh art in Benin. She has long taken the opinions of her compatriots, traveled regularly to Benin and recently, between two screenings at Fespaco, she met the Beninese professionals present in Ouagadougou. In the process, the actress initiated two days of reflection on Benin cinema, on December 16 and 17 in Ouidah (southern Benin), via the Wani Ayo association of which she is the artistic director.
She hopes that these exchanges will be the start of a movement and that Benin, like Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal, will have a “real fund” for cinema. “I am a member of OIF committees (International organization of Francophonie). I read “series” and “documentary” files and I noticed that Benin is a poor relation in this area. Either the files are badly put together, or the theme is very interesting but the financial arrangement is wobbly … Moreover, what is often lacking is the absence of public support. Generally, credit is granted to projects supported by national funds “, she confided to franceinfo Africa on her return from Fespaco.
Besides the Silver Stallion and the best sound for The fiction Freda, the Beninese producer Faissol Gnonlonfin was, among others, indirectly awarded the Gold Standard for documentary awarded at Night care from Moumouni Sanou to Ouagadougou. A few months earlier, at Cannes, during the presentation of the film Freda at Un Certain Regard where he won the special mention Découverte last July, he told franceinfo Africa his wish to see, like Tella Kpomahou, the creation of a fund dedicated to cinema. “In Benin, there is a cultural aid fund for the entire sector. However, cinema is expensive. If I meet the politicians, I will tell them that a fund for culture in general is not not possible for cinema “, he explained.
More recently, in Ouagadougou, Benin took home the Prize for the best youngest school film director awarded by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to Agnon Flora Dongbehounde for her film Untranslatable decision. Quite a symbol. The young woman comes from the ranks of the Higher Institute of Audiovisual Trades (ISMA) which had been crowned Best African School of Cinema in 2019 during the Pan-African festival. Two years earlier, it was African Storm by Beninese filmmaker Sylvestre Amoussou who won the Silver Standard. The film is part of a triple DVD, African resistance, released a few months ago where we find Africa Paradise (2006), another success of the filmmaker, with actor Eriq Ebouaney.
Thus, young and old alike can claim the legacy of Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, who died in Paris in 1987. The most Beninese of Senegalese filmmakers was the first African graduate of the Institute of Higher Cinematographic Studies (IDHEC, now FEMIS) and we owe him the short film, Africa-on-Seine (1955), one of the cult films of the emerging cinema of the continent. Paulin Soumanou Vieyra is also considered to be the first critic and the first historian of African cinema thanks to his book African Cinema: from its origins to 1973 published in 1975. Vieyra’s journey recalls the important contribution of the diaspora to the influence of Benin cinema, their contribution to cinemas on the continent was also the theme of the conference of the last edition of Fespaco.
Jean Odoutan, Franco-Beninese actor and director at the origin of the Quintescence de Ouidah festival which notably signed Pim-Pim Tché (2016), brings Benin to life on the screens. Just like the Beninese comedian Djimon Hounsou (Amistad, Black diamond and recently The king’s man) who made a career in the United States and made a documentary film on voodoo that looks like a homecoming, In Search of Voodoo: Roots to Heaven (2018). This highlighting is associated with multiple local initiatives, such as the International Women’s Film Festival launched in 2019 by journalist and filmmaker Cornelia Glèlè.
In 2022, Benin should be often associated with the cinema. The Woman King on the legendary Beninese Amazons, whose release is scheduled for next year with Viola Davis in front of the camera, should further enlighten this little thumb, compared to the neighbor and Nigerian giant Nollywood, that film professionals hope to see grow.