Cinema of Burkina Faso

Although Burkina Faso’s film output is relatively small, their role in African film is large and they’re arguably central to the West African Film Industry. Burkina Faso are co-hosts of the Pan-African FESPACO film festival (alternating with Tunisia), which largely determines the few African movies that get distributed in the US and released on DVD. Even before Burkina Faso had produced any films, the status-conferring festival was established in Ougadougou in 1969.

Although many Americans have recently become aware of the popular Nollywood scene in Nigeria, FESPACO (and by extension the Burkina Faso film community) has shut out West African neighbor Nigeria’s prolific output of movies on the basis that that they aren’t “films” since they’re shot on video. However, as more and more quality films are made on video, that argument holds less water. The real reason that Nollywood films aren’t shown at FESPACO is because they’re about as arty as an episode of Martin shot by public access crew. Even Nollywood fans wouldn’t generally argue that they’re great films, merely enjoyable star vehicles. At the last FESPACO, however, the Étalon de Yenenga did go to a Nigerian filmmaker, Newton Aduaka for Ezra. Judging from the trailer above, it’s neither Nollywood nor typically arty FESPACO fare and perhaps a bit of a concession to the growing power of Lagos’s film industry.

Despite the fact that most westerners assume that most Africans live in huts on a savannah, fighting over millet tossed from a UN aid truck, Burkina Faso has technologically modern film production and distribution facilities. In fact, they’re probably the most advanced on the continent, with the possible exceptions of Egypt and South Africa. But whereas South Africa tends to churn out glossy, soulless product that’s often aimed at nondiscriminating audiences such as Stander and Critical Assignment, or alternately, Western festival-baiting/liberal guilt-assuaging “poverty porn” like Wooden Camera or Tsotsi, Burkina Faso’s film industry remains steadfastly disinterested in commercial or Western trends — albeit perhaps beholden to a degree to the artistic sensibility of their French backers.

Heavily indebted to Soviet technique, Burkinabé films tend be highly visual, thoughtful, formalistic and didactic. Some critics argue that, though targeted toward Pan-African audiences, they’re only enjoyed by a small group of intellectuals, the implication being that African audiences are too simple to enjoy them, I guess. If they are targeted at all toward Western audiences, they’re largely unsuccesful since African art films are almost impossible to see in the western hemisphere — or at least North America. It seems unlikely that, with little potential to reach audiences outside of Africa, African directors would cater their films to the tastes of outsiders.

At Los Angeles’s Pan-African Film Festival, the program directors have used the “African diaspora” umbrella to move away from actual African films and toward “African”-American (and British) romcoms and thrillers, at the complete exclusion of actual African directors. Last year’s PAFF, for example, featured not one African feature film. Even DVD companies that specialize in arthouse and foreign films usually ignore the dark conintent. The highly regarded Criterion label seems to have a strict policy of not releasing African films, in fact, since their catalog includes multiple works from every other inhabited continent, but not one African film. It’s a shame. Having bred a large following of indiscriminate pretentious consumers willing to buy anything they release, they could use their power to shed light on the world’s most ignored cinematic treasures. How an acclaimed director like Med Hondo can have a directorial career that spans 42 years and not one film available in America on DVD whilst Criterion releases Chasing Amy and Armageddon is frankly beyond me. I did write to them several years ago to ask but they still haven’t replied. They can argue in Armageddon‘s defense all they want but that movie was like watching a four-year-old play with action figures for three hours, only slightly more nonsensical.

Burkinabé cinema began with Mamadou Djim Kola (born 1940), who directed Le conflit (1972), Le Sang des parias (1972), Cissin… cinq ans plus tard (1976) and Kognini y Toungan, les étrangers (1992). He studied in film in Paris and, back in Burkina Faso, he served as president of L’association Nationale de realisateurs de cine de Burkina Faso between 1980 and 1987. Unfortunately, none of his films have been released in the US.

In 1997, Kaboré won first prize at FESPACO for Buud Yam — the same year he ended his twelve year term as Secretary-Genaral of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers. He’s also directed Zan Boko (1988), Rabi (1992), a segment in Lumière and Company (1995).