The Vues d’Afrique international film festival is celebrating its emerald anniversary this year and presents an extensive program that revisits its past to better recall its importance in Quebec cinema. The co-founder and president of the event, Gérard Le Chêne, remembers the journey taken.
Vues d’Afrique owes a proud debt to the World Film Festival (FFM). Four decades ago, during an FFM press conference, Radio-Canada journalist Ousseynou Diop (died in 2011) asked why no African films were included in the programming. Answer ? “Because it doesn’t exist!” », Relates former journalist and documentary maker Gérard Le Chêne in an interview.
It was enough to motivate a small group of people to organize a week of African cinema at the Cinémathèque québécoise in April 1985. “It was a great success,” recalls Mr. Le Chêne, who co-founded Vues d’Afrique and is its president. We were coming to fill a gap. There was no cultural information about Africa. She was completely absent… except when there was a tragedy happening there. »
A revolution
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since this first cinematic event. Vues d’Afrique has evolved in the same way as African cinema, quietly finding its cruising speed and never looking back. Filmmakers are today celebrated and their works presented in the biggest festivals on the planet. A revolution which is not only aesthetic, but also digital: the democratization of the seventh art has allowed an extraordinary growth in terms of production.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Gérard Le Chêne, co-founder and president of Vues d’Afrique
At first, we were looking for films. Now it’s the opposite. We have to select them, because we receive between 500 and 600 each year.
Gérard Le Chêne, co-founder and president of Vues d’Afrique
A great problem which explains the richness and diversity of this new edition, which addresses themes as varied as human rights and sustainable development. On the program, 140 titles from Africa, Europe, Creole countries and Canada.
The festivities begin in full force on Thursday April 11 with the presentation of Darling marabout, a comedy from Ivory Coast that caused a sensation everywhere it went. They continue until April 21 with mornings aimed at young film buffs, thematic evenings devoted to different countries, short film screenings (including the hilarious have a child, by Éric K. Boulianne), etc.
The past found
The specter of the past hangs over this 40e editing. In the moving 1964: Simityè Kamoken, journalist and director Rachèle Magloire sheds light on a dark page of history – a massacre perpetrated by Haitian dictator François Duvalier in order to nip a planned rebellion in the bud – which had direct repercussions on her family. Then the filmmaker Osvalde Lewat offers, with MK, Mandela’s secret army, a fascinating documentary about former behind-the-scenes men and women who played an important role in ending apartheid.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Gérard Le Chêne
This year marks the 30the anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, one of the pivotal moments in the history of Vues d’Afrique, according to its president Gérard Le Chêne. “At the time, we knew the issue well, because through employment programs, we welcomed refugees of African origin before the genocide occurred. Any political figure who tells you they didn’t know what was going to happen is kidding people. If we cared at all to be informed, we could know it was coming. »
A special day, April 13, is dedicated to this sad event. Three films will be presented, including Patrick Norman in Rwanda: the duty to rememberan inspiring documentary by Charles Domingue on the impact of the play When we are in love of the Quebec singer among the Rwandan population.
“Thanks to a festival like Vues d’Afrique, Quebec discovered that French speakers were not only in Europe,” maintains Gérard Le Chêne. This new French-speaking lung has excited a lot of people. There was an extraordinary appetite to see these films. » A desire that remains intact for this event which allows us to continue to follow African news while remaining at the forefront of cinematographic discoveries.
Vues d’Afrique takes place from April 11 to 21 at the Méga-Plex Guzzo of the Central Market.
Visit the Vues d’Afrique Festival website
Our suggestions
All the Colors of the World Are Between Black and White
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VIEWS OF AFRICA
All the Colors of the World Are Between Black and White
This melancholy first feature film by Babatunde Apalowo, which chronicles a forbidden love, is the Nigerian response to Moonlight. Awarded in Berlin in 2023, the story has a colorful Wong Kar-wai staging and it subtly explores the wide range of human feelings. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
April 16 at 8:15 p.m. and April 20 at 10 p.m.
The mother of all lies
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VIEWS OF AFRICA
The mother of all lies
Movie fans who liked Olfa’s daughters will be delighted by this brilliant documentary which also uses fiction to better understand the truth. Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir uses a model of Casablanca to immerse herself in her memories and confront the silences of her family.
April 20 at 6 p.m.
Djibril Diop Mambety
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VIEWS OF AFRICA
Still from the movie The little sun seller
Along with Sembène Ousmane, Djibril Diop Mambety is the most famous Senegalese filmmaker. It will be possible to reconnect with his essential work by rediscovering restored versions of his fabulous medium-length films The franc And The little sun sellerwhich are offered for the occasion in cinema-concert mode.
April 12 at 8:30 p.m., April 14 at 2:30 p.m. and April 20 at 4 p.m.
Planting the planters
PHOTO MARC GIESEN, PROVIDED BY VUES D’AFRICA
Planting the planters
This selection from Cameroon for the Oscars in 2023 combines feminist drama and neocolonialist allegory, recounting the daily struggles of a daughter who tries to take care of her father’s plantation. Filmmaker Eystein Young Dingha casts a wide net by incorporating satirical, melodramatic and even musical elements for a surprising result.
April 12 at 8:15 p.m. and April 13 at 10:15 p.m.