Festival gives lifeline for threatened African films

The Fespaco festival features films from around Africa and attracts hundreds of foreign visitors. Photo / AP

Sitting next to David Ouasali brings out how much local African cinema means to its viewers, who often don't speak the languages of international films and don't read so cannot follow subtitles.

We are perched on a bench in Pissy, 7km from the centre of Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. Darkness is all around but the reflected light of a fuzzy projection picks out Ouasali's intense concentration and the odd smile.

This is cinema in much of rural Africa; under the stars in the open air, surrounded by crumbling concrete, in a language people understand.

But, even as Ouaga's pan-African Fespaco film festival showcases more than 300 films this week and pits 19 feature films against each other, African-made films struggle for the exposure and backing they deserve.

Pissy's aged projector clunks to a halt for 10 minutes. People barely shift. No one knows what film is showing as they buy their ticket. No one minds when the film starts, they wander in whenever.

But once in, they are transfixed by Buud Yam which won the top prize in 1997. It's about a young, mute man's search for his parents, and it's all in Moore, the language of the Mossi people who make up half the country's 12 million population. Its experienced director, Gaston Kabore, known as the father of Burkinabe cinema and this year's senior judge at Fespaco, says the mute boy represents Africa after colonialism - searching for its voice and new direction. "In cinema we can reflect the trajectory and the history of Africa; it is a way to seek and explain our identity," says Kabore, 57. "We have lost a lot: I am trying to rediscover, to rebuild and to go further into my deep soul."

Here, amid the splutters of a wayward projector, the search continues. It's one of the only places and the only times black Africans can see themselves writ large, handling the challenges of daily life.

Audience member, Rose Sawadogo, couldn't afford the grand opening of Fespaco, which took place in the 35,000-capacity national stadium closer to the town centre. Even though the spectacle was free, the transport cost too much. Instead, she is taking her 6-year-old son out to see a film about his country.

Burkina Faso is a country of dust, cattle and grain. And somehow cinema. After several twists in its post-colonial history - Burkina Faso threw out the French in 1960 - one of the world's financially poorest countries became home to an industry that could support 55 cinemas. Since its launch in 1969, Fespaco has grown to support the industry in style, becoming the sub-Saharan Cannes.

This year's contenders offer a varied selection. Soweto carjackers; an albino killed for his head; corruption in the workplace; flight from authoritarian regimes; a romantic road trip; incest among poor whites; a Moroccan dancer in New York; and black Africans' role in slavery all feature.

But as filmmakers get into their creative stride, the commercial side is struggling. Of late, 20 cinemas in Burkina have closed and today only 10 work. More and more film-makers are turning to the cheap video market that has made Nigeria's "Nollywood" the world's third-biggest film industry after Hollywood and Bollywood.

The Cameroonian director Daniel Kamwa knows only too well how crucial cinema halls are. His tender film of young love Mah Saah-Sah, shot in the Bamoun language in a village 300km from the next town in western Cameroon, was shown for only a month in his home country before riots, linked to the rising cost of food and fuel, shut down cinema halls.

Just over a month ago, Cameroon, a nation of 18.5 million people, said goodbye to its final three screens.

"It's the end of cinema in Cameroon," says Kamwa of the closures.

His only option is to bring it out on DVD, but he knows it will be copied within moments of its release and sold on the black market on cheap CDs. As sales fall, donor funds dry up and piracy spreads, Africa's directors may have to embrace the technical revolution further and film on cheaper, digital cameras, aiming solely for television or video release.

With Ouagadougou bringing the magic of the big screen to Burkina's people and the hundreds of foreign visitors who fly in for Fespaco, there's a chance that festivals might keep African cinema going a little bit longer.

Cannes of Africa

* Known as Upper Volta until independence from France in 1960.
* One of the poorest countries in the world. Almost 50 per cent of the country survives on less than $1 a day.
* Population is 15 million.
* Head of state is Blaise Compaore who came to power in a military coup in 1987 while a junior officer. Since then, he has won every election.
* Exports are cotton and gold.

- INDEPENDENT