FESPACO General Delegate Moussa Alex Sawadogo told the daily Sidwaya on Friday that "today, when we try to look internationally, we see the presence of Burkinabe cinema in almost all major category A festivals”.
“For example, we recently had at the Rotterdam festival, one of the major category A film festivals, the film by Salam Zampaligré: Le taxi, le cinema et moi. With the same film, he won the prize for best documentary film at the Luxor festival in Egypt,” said FESPACO General Delegate Moussa Alex Sawadogo on Friday.
The delegate general spoke during a report interview published this Friday in the public daily Sidwaya. He noted the important place occupied by Burkinabe cinema on the international level.
“We also have Apolline Traoré's film, Sira, which won the audience award at the Berlinale in Germany, which is the second or third biggest festival in the world. It is the first African film to win it,” said Mr. Sawadogo.
According to him, “if we look at the level of presence, Burkinabè films are present at major events and honor African cinema there”. “I think we have to see the presence of African cinema instead of confining ourselves to the level of Burkina,” he noted.
The only concern, according to him, is "that Burkinabè cinema is only judged through FESPACO and that is dangerous". Rather, he thinks “we have to go beyond that”.
“It's true that FESPACO is the mirror, the showcase. This is where we want to be, but let's try to go further than FESPACO to be able to gauge the presence, the dynamics and the creative force of the Burkinabè”, he advised.
Beyond that, he continued, “this dynamic could be strengthened if we try to review the structure, because the Yennenga Gold Stallion is acquired, it is a struggle. It is about fifty States which fight for a Standard and to be able to arrive there too, we must give ourselves the ways and the means”.
Moussa Alex Sawadogo took "the example of Senegal, although Sembène Ousmane is Senegalese and co-founder of FESPACO, the country of Téranga only began to win the Etalon d'or de Yennenga in recent years and even same person, Alain Gomis”.
“You see that they have given themselves the means to get there. But how did they arrive? It is the structuring, the relationship between the supervisory ministry and the professionals to be able to find a form of financing for films, of organizing the sector to achieve this, ”he said.
For the Delegate General, "professionals should not wait for the approach of FESPACO to put pressure on the ministry in order to obtain a fund of one billion or one billion 500 million CFA francs from the Head of State".
He doesn't believe that's how we're going to get there. “I think that if we want to have the Yennenga Stallion in February or March 2025, now is the time to start preparing”.
Moussa Alexandre Sawadogo informed that of the 51 nations, including the diaspora who were present at this edition of FESPACO, the most represented country in terms of film productions was Burkina Faso.
“We received more than 80 films. We have selected more than 31. (…) It's not because it's Burkina, it's in relation to the quality; even, if on arrival, the yellow jersey did not return to Burkina. But, we have to go beyond that. We look at the quality, the strength, the dynamics of Burkinabe cinema,” he recommended.
The 28? edition of the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film and Television Festival took place from February 25 to March 4, 2023 under the theme “African Cinemas and Culture of Peace”.
The Yennenga Gold Stallion was won by Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi with his film Ashkal and the Silver Stallion by Burkinabe Apolline Traoré's film Sira.
For Alex Moussa Sawadogo, Apolline Traoré has fully deserved her prize. “Sira is a quality film. Apolline Traoré is a very dynamic, very creative director, who manages to work in perfect symbiosis with her actors, her technicians”, he underlined.
“She gave herself the means, it is true that her means were limited. Going to Mauritania to shoot probably doubled her budget… She deserves it,” he also said.
Source: Burkina Information Agency