A Tribute to Ousmane Sembène
 Considered by many to be the greatest African filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007) began his remarkable career relatively late in life. Born and raised in Senegal - and kicked out of school in his early teens - Sembène fought for the French Army during WWII, and moved to Marseille after the War, where he worked for Citroën, discovered Marxism, and participated in railroad strikes and trade union movements. There, Sembène also began to write, and by the 1960s was regarded as a major African novelist in his native Senegal and abroad. But pushing forty and desiring to reach a larger audience, Sembène went back to school for filmmaking, and soon became a darling of the international film festival circuit; he is often credited with bringing the attention of sub-Saharan African cinema to the West. Passionate and provocative, satirical and socially conscious, Sembène tackles the problems of modern Africa, and is an ardent advocate of African autonomy. Cinematheque, in conjunction with the UW African Studies Program and the Department of French and Italian, is proud to present six of Sembène's finest films.
Series organized by Aliko Songolo and Karin Kolb. All prints courtesy of New Yorker Films.
Thursday, July 17, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Black Girl (La Noire de...)
Senegal, 1965, 35mm, b/w, subtitled, 60 min.
With Thérèse M'bissine Diop, Anne-Marie Jelinek, Robert Fontaine
Sembène tackles the myth of decolonization in his debut feature about a young Senegalese woman who eagerly accepts an offer to travel to France with the family for whom she babysits. Out of Africa, however, she finds that she's just "the black girl." A bitter story of exile and despair, the film blends a New-Wave aesthetic with neorealist simplicity, and is often attributed with putting African cinema on the map. "A stark, inventive portrait of colonial displacement" (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice). In French with English subtitles.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008, 8:10 p.m.
Faat-Kiné
Senegal, 2000, 35mm, color, subtitled, 118 min.
With Venus Seye, Mame Ndoumbé Diop, Tabara N'diaye
A tribute to what Sembène calls the "everyday heroism of African women," the film tells the comic story of Faat-Kiné, a brash and wry self-made woman, who successfully manages a gas station, supports her mother, and pays for her two children's college education, no thanks to the men in her life. Her children, unhappy that she doesn't have a husband, try to take matters into their own hands. In French and Wolof with English subtitles.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Borom Sarret
Senegal, 1964, 35mm, b/w, subtitled, 20 min.
With Abdoulaye Ly
Sembène's first film, Borom Sarret, chronicles a day in the life of a poor cart-driver in Dakar. In French with English subtitles.
Mandabi (The Money Order)
Senegal, 1968, 35mm, color, subtitled, 90 min.
With Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N'diaye, Isseu Niang
Sembène's second feature, Mandabi spins a darkly humorous tale of Deng, a man who receives a money order from his nephew in France for 20,000 francs (≈$100). When he attempts to cash it, he encounters Kafkaesque bureaucracy and corruption, and concludes that, "honesty is a sin in this country." In Wolof with English subtitles.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Xala (The Curse)
Senegal, 1974, 35mm, color, subtitled, 123 min.
With Thierno Leye, Seune Samb, Miriam Niang
When El Hadji Abdoukadar Beye, a self-satisfied businessman who drives a sleek Mercedes and sits on the Chamber of Commerce, takes a third wife (he already has one traditional and one Westernized), he falls victim to the xala (pronounced "ha-la"), a curse that renders him impotent. A scathing satire on the new post-independence ruling class, the film broke Senegalese box-office records and is arguably Sembène's masterpiece. In Wolof and French with English subtitles.
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Thursday, August 7, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Guelwaar
Senegal, 1993, 35mm, color, subtitled, 115 min.
With Thierno N'diaye, Ndiawar Diop, Myriam Niang
After the mysterious death of Guelwaar ("the noble one"), a political activist and leader of the local Christian community, his corpse is mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetery. Bureaucratic red tape, familial disputes, and religious turf wars follow, as his family's disinterment plans unravel. Guelwaar blends black comedy, political allegory, and social satire, in a biting indictment of African corruption and neocolonial Western aid. In Wolof and French with English subtitles.
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