{"id":25433,"date":"2018-08-27T14:02:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T18:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=25433"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:18","slug":"preserving-african-cinema","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/preserving-african-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving African Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Preserving African Cinema\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Professor Aboubakar Sanogo<\/a> (Film Studies<\/a>) is a scholar of African cinema and works for the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers<\/a> (FEPACI), but it took him years to see one of the major films from the continent: Med Hondo\u2019s<\/a> Soleil O<\/em>, a 1969 portrait of a black immigrant in Paris, was long revered, but widely unavailable. Sanogo didn\u2019t see it until a print surfaced in Paris in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven in Burkina, the capital city of African cinema, it wasn\u2019t available,\u201d Sanogo said from New York in early June. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanogo was addressing a broader challenge facing the preservation of African film history\u2014and one that might be facing a brighter future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 7, FEPACI, UNESCO, and Martin Scorsese\u2019s Film Foundation World Cinema Project<\/a> signed a letter of agreement formalizing their partnership<\/a> on the African Film Heritage Project<\/a>, a joint initiative to preserve African cinema. But their work has already shown major results, with Soleil O<\/em><\/a> screening in the Cannes Classics section last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project \u201cwill restore, disseminate \u2026 in Africa and around the world, a collection of the films from Africa that are historically, artistically, and culturally significant,\u201d Scorsese said at the event in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, he explained how his interest in African cinema grew out of his passion for Souleymane Ciss\u00e9\u2019s 1987 sorcerer drama Yeelen<\/em>, which he saw on television. Eventually, he formed a relationship with Ciss\u00e9 and visited him in Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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