Leah Lavoie: Studying African film in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso was a highlight of my academic career at Carleton University. African Cinema on Location (AFRI 3100) taught by Professor Aboubakar Sanogo allowed me to gain first-hand experience and knowledge about the growing film industry on the diverse continent. As a student of anthropology and African studies, this course fit in well with my fields of interest. But it did not end there. This field course unfolded into a multi-disciplinary learning experience. Not only did we learn about the history of Burkina Faso in the classroom at Imagine Institute where we stayed but we could also see the impact of that unique history, for example, from the French colonial period in the streets and speaking French with Burkinabés. We watched films produced and directed by African film makers and we also had the opportunity to talk to these film makers about the issues they highlighted in their films as well as the impact the films had on their lives. We were able to visit important locations in the film industry in the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso such as the headquarters of FESPACO, the bi-annual film festival that takes place in the capital. We were also able to experience the local flavour by dining at different restaurants and listening to music created there. This course abroad allowed us to step out of the traditional classroom at Carleton, into an environment that was foreign and after a few weeks became familiar to us through this unique learning experience.
Will Tait: I had the opportunity to take AFRI 3100, African Cinema on Location, in Burkina Faso early in the summer of 2012. I was unsure of what to expect, as it was a part of the world I had never been to before, but it turned out to be an amazing experience on many levels. Studying African film and the film industry onsite gave me a new insight not just on cinema but also on the cultures and peoples of West Africa. Dr. Aboubakar Sanogo, the professor for the course, is a Burkinabe whose reputation and connections allowed us extraordinary access to some of the top filmmakers from the region. Almost on a daily basis we met directors who have won awards at the Cannes or Berlin film festivals and we had the chance to interact with these artists on an academic level in the classroom as well as on a personal level during dinner or at cultural events in the evening. This gave us a unique perspective on how these filmmakers produced their own work and more importantly perhaps, on how art is created in sometimes very difficult circumstances.
As a history student I observed the theories that I study play out on the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou and in the communities we traveled to on field trips. The contact with the people that we met and the other students on the trip really made me think and re-examine the links and disconnections between where I live and the places we visited.
The trip to Burkina Faso, and experiencing the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of the country and the region became an essential part of my learning experience and one that I would enthusiastically recommend to any student.