To mark the 50th anniversary of the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Aboubakar Sanogo presents a sweeping survey of the festival's history, influence, and future directions. He notes the festival's function as a home for African filmmakers and cinema, as a space for cultural encounters, as a library and archive of debates on African cinema, and as a barometer of health or lack thereof of the various national film industries on the continent. After reviewing this year's selection of films, which reflect ever-present concerns over memory, the geopolitical, and the effects of powerful external forces, Sanogo concludes that FESPACO faces formidable challenges to its self-renewal, including its mandate to define the values of African cinema and present them to the world.
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Winter 2019
Research Article|
December 01 2019
Cine-Agora Africana: Meditating on the Fiftieth Anniversary of FESPACO
Aboubakar Sanogo
Aboubakar Sanogo
Aboubakar Sanogo is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University. His writings have appeared in Cinema Journal, Framework, Moving Image Review & Art Journal, Rethinking History, and the Journal of Film Preservation Sanogo. He has also curated film programs at the Smithsonian Institution, TIFF, Il Cinema Ritrovato and FESPACO.
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Film Quarterly (2019) 73 (2): 31–40.
Citation
Aboubakar Sanogo; Cine-Agora Africana: Meditating on the Fiftieth Anniversary of FESPACO. Film Quarterly 1 December 2019; 73 (2): 31–40. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2019.73.2.31
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