Photo: Ayen Deng Bior.
“Assistant director Pape Samba Tine (second from right) yells, ‘Action!’ on the set of a new Senegalese documentary about women’s lives,” the Christian Science Monitor reports.
For generations, films about Africa were written by non-Africans — in effect by the descendants of the colonizers. But over time, Africans have begun to tell their own stories in their own way.
Ayen Deng Bior, reporting from Senegal for the Christian Science Monitor, writes, “On a dusty Monday afternoon, the hallways of the Kourtrajmé film school buzz with nervous chatter and excitement. It is pitch day, and soon everyone files into a classroom to listen to the students present their screenplay ideas.
“The topics cover a wide sweep of Senegalese life, from the story of a 19th-century slave insurrection to a supernatural drama about a woman who can read people’s thoughts.
“When Leida Ndiaye’s turn comes, she is sweating. … But soon, she finds her rhythm, describing her idea for a rom-com about a woman in her early 30s who uses her job in human resources to ‘interview’ prospective dates to her birthday party. Ms. Ndiaye explains that she wants to provoke new conversations about dating and marriage.
“ ‘A lot of financially independent women are living the same situation here in Senegal,’ she says. ‘The tension between her professional life and her chaotic emotional life leads her to a deep introspection on her true desires and the nature of love.’
“Ms. Ndiaye and her classmates at Kourtrajmé are part of a new generation of Senegalese filmmakers who are setting out to tell their own stories on their own terms. With a film about Senegalese migrants, Io Capitano, up for best foreign film at the Oscars [2024], they know the world is eager to hear about their lives.
“But Io Capitano’s success also highlights the challenges they face. The movie was made by Italian filmmakers, igniting conversation about what types of stories get told about Africa and by whom.
“ ‘The Italian film is amazing, but it’s another story about migration,’ says Emma Sangaré, an American producer and screenwriter, and Kourtrajmé’s co-founder. For her students, she adds, there is so much more to say.
“Kourtrajmé’s popularity is a testament to hunger of young Africans to showcase a different kind of story. The school, which opened in 2022, gets hundreds of applications from all over the continent for about two dozen spots in its screenwriting and directing courses. Both six-month programs are fully funded.
“The Dakar school is the third branch of Kourtrajmé, which French director Ladj Ly started in 2018 in a disadvantaged suburb of Paris in order to bring new and different voices into the film industry. Senegal’s Kourtrajmé was founded by Mr. Ly, Ms. Sangaré, and her husband, French Malian director Toumani Sangaré. …
“Last year, Banel & Adama, a magical realist romantic drama by French Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, premiered to positive reviews at the Cannes film festival. But for many Senegalese filmmakers, a lack of resources and connections still makes the global film circuit hard to break into.
“Io Capitano, for instance, had budget of more than $8 million. … But getting funding like that often means turning to American or European producers. In these situations, Ms. Sangaré says the power dynamic makes it hard for young Senegalese filmmakers to assert their authority about the kinds of stories they want to tell. …
“Mariama Niang is in director mode, supervising her team as it prepares to shoot an interview for her documentary, Elle, on a recent afternoon. …
“For Ms. Niang, an alumnus of Kourtrajmé who has wanted to be a filmmaker since she was a child, this moment has been a long time coming.
“ ‘Cinema is the world,’ she says. ‘In cinema, you can see everything. You can see one movie, and you see all your life in that movie.’
“Elle, whose title means ‘she,’ follows five Senegalese women who have made names for themselves in their respective industries – from photography to financial consulting – while challenging the common narrative here that women are ‘just’ homemakers and childbearers. It’s a contentious topic that Ms. Niang has wanted to tackle for years, but she couldn’t figure out how to pay for it.
“Kourtrajmé changed that. The film school funded half the production, and Ms. Niang used the pitch skills she honed there to convince a private investor to pay for the rest.
“Back at Kourtrajmé, Ms. Ndiaye [says] ‘It’s better to tell our own story because if you don’t do it, people won’t know what exactly African people are living. … Westerners are doing it; they share their history; they share their culture. Why not us?’ ”
More at the Monitor, here. No paywall.
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