November 10, 2021. Walk on water, the second documentary by actress Aïssa Maïga is being released in theaters. The film, shot between 2018 and 2019 in Niger, tells how an entire village is fighting against climate change and to have access to drinking water.
The actress says she used all “the tools of narrative fiction to create this documentary. Create empathy, make sure that the spectator and the spectator spend a moment with these people, cry with them, but also laugh with them.”
Walk on water was part of an ephemeral selection at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Aïssa Maïga notably shows the daily life of Oulaye, fourteen, who has to walk for miles to fetch water. However, a lake exists in the region and a simple drilling could change the lives of the inhabitants of the village. In France, regrets Aïssa Maïga, the documentary did not have the hoped-for success. “I don’t have the exact figures, but in theaters, no, it wasn’t really a huge success. Now it’s on the OCS platform so it’s seen a lot more. And it’s a film that travels enormously, whether in the capitals of African countries or the United States, Europe or elsewhere.”
“The amazement is the same when the spectators discover the harshness of the daily life of people who are impacted by climate change, but who are not people who pollute.”
Aissa Maigaat franceinfo
Some things have changed for them since the release of the film and this visibility given to their daily life because the NGO with which the film crew worked built the borehole with the support of the government of Niger. So, “The arrival of this drinking and accessible water changes everything. The conditions have improved, but I would say that everything remains to be done”, comments Aïssa Maïga.
Being behind the camera, directing, is something she wants to be more and more involved in. “It’s an old dream, the realization. When I started my career as an actress, I immediately knew that I would not do that. But for all that, I had no other skills. And by dint of experiences on the sets, I think I learned, like in a kind of continuous training. And today, I see myself doing both. I don’t at all want to choose. I completely continue my career as an actress and I have many, many desires to direct, both in documentary and fiction”, says the actress.
Actress, director and activist, her speech at the Césars in 2020 had made an impression. She had counted the number of black people in the room to point out the lack of representation in French cinema. Even today, people continue to talk to him about this speech. “He really aroused hatred, especially on the far right. It was really fierce. But I receive testimonies of support every day, especially via social networks. It gives me a lot of energy to continue. The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel has been carrying out studies on the representation of non-whites on screens for more than twenty years now.One of the difficulties is that in France, we cannot count individuals according to the color of their skin. This is based on a noble idea: we do not divide French society. We are supposed to be all French. But the problem is that when there are a lot of discrimination, that they are of a systemic and lasting order, therefore the fact of not being able to count” is a handicap, consider Aissa Maiga.
Aïssa Maïga will be showing three films in theaters soon. She is working on her third documentary about her father, a Malian political journalist murdered in the late 80s. At the end of June, she was invited, along with Vincent Lindon, to join the Academy of Oscars. They will therefore be able to vote for the winners of the next edition.