Think for a minute-have you ever seen a black African movie? The currently popular “The Gods Must Be Crazy” was made in Botswana, but it was produced, written and directed by South Africans. Yet for all the dedication and sacrifice, the “new” African film images remain confined largely to the African continent. The ninth Pan African Film Festival was also a testament to the passion and commitment of film makers everywhere to get their films made: one from Ghana risked losing his wife in a deal to finance his modest picture. Of the 150 or so films screened at Fespaco ’85-most produced in the past 25 years, many of them shorts and documentaries, almost all done on minuscule budgets-not one included any of Hollywood’s favorite African images: headhunters, cannibals, Pygmies, wild jungle beasts, missionaries or half-clothed Tarzans swinging through the trees. Twelve years and eight features later, Burkina Faso, like the rest of Black Africa, is making slow progress in bringing to the screen images of itself. One of the poorest countries in the world, with almost no natural resources, almost no literacy, one of the most affected by the continuing Sahel drought, set out to become the Hollywood of Africa. The Voltaic government, which had been financing documentaries and instructional films since 1960, noted the response. No longer were they just consumers of cinema-now they were participants.” It was as extraordinary for them as watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon must have been for Americans. For the first time, Voltaics saw themselves on the screen. The scene lasted only one minute and had no dialogue, but it had an incredible effect on everyone. Nasser Ktari, a Tunisian film maker who provided technical assistance, recalled the historic moment when the projector began to hum: “The images projected against the wall came into focus: A young Voltaic, carrying an attache case, walked through the streets of Ouaga.
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