{"id":1140,"date":"2006-09-19T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-20T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/?p=1140"},"modified":"2006-09-19T20:53:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-20T03:53:00","slug":"the-films-of-ousmane-sembne-at-the-pacific-film-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/19\/the-films-of-ousmane-sembne-at-the-pacific-film-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Films of Ousmane Semb\u00e8ne at the Pacific Film Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was a sophomore at Berkeley in 2002, I took a class with Prof. Anna-Livia Brawn<\/a>, on French colonial films — given that I knew I would be headed to Senegal later that fall. One of the filmmakers that she introduced us to was Ousmane Sembène<\/a>, a Senegalese director and writer who she highly lauded and suggested that if ever we had the chance to see a Sembène film, that we should, given that Sembène apparently is very finicky about releasing his films on video\/DVD. <\/p>\n

Taking her advice, I saw Le Camp de Thiaroye<\/i> (1988) and Faat-Kiné<\/i> (2002) at a short series at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco that fall, and more recently<\/a> in 2005 saw Moolaadé<\/i> while in New York. All three were excellent, and well worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

I’m happy to announce that a slew of Sembène’s films will be coming straight to Berkeley’s Pacific Film Archive<\/a> in October, where you’ll find me at as many of these as I can go to. Like all PFA films, UC Berkeley student tickets are only $4, non-Berkeley students at $5, and general admission is $8.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

SAT OCT 7 2006
\n6:30\t\tBlack Girl
\nHer postcolonial hopes dashed, a young Senegalese woman is led to a dramatic act of resistance in Black Girl, considered Africa’s first dramatic feature. With Borom Sarret, a poignant, politically charged essay on a cart driver in the poorer sections of Dakar.<\/p>\n

SAT OCT 7 2006
\n8:15\t\tMandabi
\nA comic fable about a middle-aged man whose life changes when he receives a money order from Paris. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sembène’s approach is spare, laconic, slightly ironic, and never patronizing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dN.Y. Times<\/p>\n

FRI OCT 13 2006
\n8:15\t\tCeddo
\nIn the guise of a political thriller set in the 18th century, Ceddo takes on taboo subjects\u00e2\u20ac\u201dIslamic influence in Senegal, African support for the slave trade, the status of women\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbecoming a reflection on all forms of colonialism in Africa. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like a contemporary Euripides, Sembène has created a form of public, primal art.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dVillage Voice<\/p>\n

SAT OCT 14 2006
\n8:15\t\tXala
\nAn aging, affluent businessman about to marry his third wife is struck with the curse of xala (impotence) in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one of the most sophisticated works of the African cinema-at once both comic satire and a deadly accurate polemic against the black bourgeoisie of Dakar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dAlbert Johnson<\/p>\n

FRI OCT 20 2006
\n6:30\t\tEmita\u00c3\u00af
\nNamed for the God of Thunder, a story about the awakening of national consciousness, in the clash between French colonists and the Diola tribe in the closing days of WWII. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Told with great sensitivity and restraint.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dS.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n

FRI OCT 20 2006
\n8:35\t\tMoolaadé
\nUniversally acclaimed, Sembène’s recent film portrays a mother’s courage in protecting the next generation of women from the terrible tradition of female genital mutilation. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A masterpiece of political filmmaking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dN.Y. Times<\/p>\n

SAT OCT 21 2006
\n6:30\t\tGuelwaar
\nWhen the body of a murdered political activist goes missing from the morgue, his family’s attempts to retrieve it nearly escalate into a holy war. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A work of wry sophistication.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dN.Y. Times<\/p>\n

SAT OCT 21 2006
\n8:45\t\tFaat-Kine
\nThe first in Sembène’s series on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153everyday heroes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Moolaadé is the second) centers on the quick-witted proprietress of a Dakar gas station. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A rich comedy of manners that gives a feeling of hope about Africa’s future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dFilm Comment<\/p>\n

THU OCT 26 2006
\n7:30\t\tThe Camp at Thiaroye
\nAt the close of WWII, Senegalese troops are held in a Dakar transit camp that is little better than the concentration camps some of them have just braved. A \u00e2\u20ac\u0153powerful indictment of colonialism . . . shows WWII’s effects on shaping the future of Africa.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dVariety\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a sophomore at Berkeley in 2002, I took a class with Prof. Anna-Livia Brawn, on French colonial films — given that I knew I would be headed to Senegal later that fall. One of the filmmakers that she introduced us to was Ousmane Sembène, a Senegalese director and writer who she highly lauded and suggested that if ever we had the chance to see a Sembène film, that we should, given that Sembène apparently is very finicky…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,69,131,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-berkeley","category-francophonie","category-movies","category-senegal","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uks-io","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyrusfarivar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}