Fespaco Franco- and Anglophone filmmakers meeting

African filmmakers appear to be disillusioned with the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) that, they say, is no longer a shop window for African and Arabic cinema that it was meant to be at its inception in 1969. And perhaps nothing symbolises this view better than the conspicuous absence of the award-winning Moroccan film director Nabil Ayouch who kept away from the 18th edition of FESPACO in February 2003.

Although his film, Ali Zaoua, had collected the Yennenga Stallion cake in 2001, Ayouch did not bother entering A Minute Less Sunshine, his latest production, into the race for a prize in what is billed as Africa's premier audiovisual festival. Speaking to BBC World Service's Artbeat programme from Paris, Ayouch said he was disillusioned by FESPACO. Saying FESPACO was disorganised, he accused its organisers of "lack of respect for filmmakers." He was angry, he said, about the treatment given to film directors by the organisers, drawn from the governnment.

Canadian film director Frances Ann Solomon and South African producer Richard Green aboard a Kenya Airways jet from Ouagadougou en-route to Johannesburg

He said organisers show films late--even for as late as three hours--and change screening venues without informing film directors who are expected to present their films. He said civil servant bureaucracy was spoiling FESPACO. He had failed to collect his Yennenga Stallion in 2001 as he had not received an airline ticket from FESPACO The organisers only realised their gaffe after Ali Zoua had won but Ayouch could not go forward to collect his award. He refused to excuse FESPACO organisers on what he termed inefficiency saying the festival was a great event 20 years ago. It no longer is what Ayouch calls "a shop window for African and Arabic cinema."

And criticism of all kinds of FESPACO was not in short supply for any one who cared to listen. Filmmaker Mahmood Ali-Balogun of Nigeria, Judy Kibinge of Kenya, Rahamatou Keita of Niger ,and Frances Ann Solomon of Canada all had a problem with the organisation of FESPACO. "FESPACO organisers behave as if we don't count," Ali-Balogun commented. "We go to a conference and they conduct it in French while fully aware we don't speak French. They should take cognisance of the fact that we use our own money to come here .They should translate proceedings of meetings in English besides subtitling films in English," Ali-Balogun, who said this was his third attendance at FESPACO, said the number of participant is declining due to disorganisation. "FESPACO does not seem to be doing any assessment of what happens at their festivals in order to improve subsequent events. All they seem to be concerned with is that they host a festival and then go to sleep until the next one," Ali-Balogun said .

Solomon, the producer -director of Lord have mercy television series, was disappointed that FESPACO does not readily avail information on events to festival goers. She also expressed concern that FESPACO appears to be a mere cultural festival and not a market for selling and buying films. "Of the more than5000 participant at FESPACO," she observed, "only 23 were distributors of films." Kibinge, whose film,The aftermath, was in television videos competition, left Nairobi for Ouagadougou before the return air ticket from FESPACO had arrived. Reaching Accra, she used a bus to Ouagadougou because she could not afford an air ticket She blamed her plight on what she terms "disorganisation" by FESPACO. Keita's problem was that although 18th FESPACO focused on actors this year, they 'forgot' to invite Zalika Souley, considered the first African actress, to Ouagadougou. Director of Al'leessi: an African actress, Keita said, "I was surprised to discover in Ouagadougou that this first black African actress had not been invited here." Speaking to Catherine Fellows on ArtBeat program, Ayouch accussed FESPACO organisers of "lack of seriousness" among other things FESPACO changes screening venues arbitrarily, have little respect for film directors and fail to send invited filmmakers air tickets to Ouagadougou

She blamed her plight on what she terms "disorganisation" by FESPACO. Keita's problem was that although 18th FESPACO focused on actors this year, they 'forgot' to invite Zalika Souley, considered the first African actress, to Ouagadougou. Director of Al'leessi: an African actress, Keita said, "I was surprised to discover in Ouagadougou that this first black African actress had not been invited here." Speaking to Catherine Fellows on ArtBeat program, Ayouch accussed FESPACO organisers of "lack of seriousness" among other things FESPACO changes screening venues arbitrarily, have little respect for film directors and fail to send invited filmmakers air tickets to Ouagadougou

When his film Ali Zaoua won the FESPACO Stallion award 2001, Ayouch was not in Ouagadougou after FESPACO failed to send him a ticket. "This was why I saw no need of entering my film in competition in 2003," he explained to Artbeat.

Nigerian film director Mahmood Ali-Balogun and his Kenyan counterpart Albert Wandago at Ouagadougou International Airport

Like Ali-Balogun, Ayouch says the number of festivaliers to FESPACO is declining. "The festival should be run by professionals and not civil servants whose concept of time is retrogressive. Instead of bringing filmmakers to FESPACO they invite government ministers with women to socialise in the festival." With few kind words for African film festivals, Ayouch claimed that Carthage was also failing because of its management being under civil servants. Since 1972 when Etalons de Yennenga (FESPACO stallion) was first given as the highest award at FESPACO it has been a domain of Francophone except in 1989 when Ghanaian Kwah Ansah's Heritage Africa, upset the circle.

Even then, reliable sources say it caused trouble after FESPASCO failed to hand Ansah all the US$11000 that goes with the FESPACO Stallion prize. From then hence Anglophone Africa appears to have lost faith in FESPACO. Pundits are wondering whether the FESPACO Stallion is not reserved for Francophone Africa. And they give this list of Etalons de Yennenga (Fespaco stallions) winners as proof that something isn't right with its administration: 2003 Heremakono, Abdeiehnlene Sissako, Mauritania 2001 Ali Zaoua, Nabil Ayouch, Morocco 1999 Pieces d'idenites, Mweze Ngangura, Congo-Kinshasa 1997 Buud Yam, Gaston Kabore, Burkina Faso 1995 Guimba, Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Mali 1993 Au nom du Christ, Roger G'noan M'Bala, Ivory Coast 1991 Tilai, Idrissa Ouedvaogo, Burkina Faso 1989 Heritage Africa, Kwaw Ansah, Ghana 1987 Sarra ouini'a, Med Hondo, Mauritania 1985 Histoire d'une rencontre, Brahim Tsaki, Algeria 1983 Finye, Souleymane Cisse, Mali 1981 Djeli, Kramo Lancine Fadika, Ivory Coast 1979 Baara, Souleymane Cisse, Mali 1976 Muna Moto, Dikongue Pipa, Cameroon 1973 Les mille et unesmains, Souheil Ben Barka, Morocco 1972 Le Wazzou polyame, Oumarou Ganda, Niger This year filmmakers were unhappy with the choice of the jury in awarding the FESPACO Stallion to Mauritania's Abderhmane Sissako's Heremakono (Waiting for happiness).

Senegalese director Moussa Sene Absa did not fight shy of expressing his feelings. "Personal decisions have been made," he said. "Politics is pulling down African film. The goal of art is to help people be happy. I make films not for intellectuals but to inform people about their experiences." "An arty film difficult to understand in Africa," observed Eric Kabera (the Rwandese producer of 100 days), "even Sissako was surprised Heremakono was declared the best film at FESPACO in2003." Absa was so blunt: "You don't have to please others by playing to their demands, expectations, stereotypes, and sub cultures."He said he lives not in a village but the city and that his films revolve around this reality. Absa stressed that documentaries in Francophone Africa are not getting funding for failing to meet what he termed "stereotypes of Africa by donor agencies who want films on "desert" and "villages." Absa wondered why FESPACO lumped fiction and documentaries together in the short films competition category.

As a parting shot to the forces playing behind scenes at FESPACO, Absa said, "We must keep politics out of FESPACO." But could this have been a case of sour grapes after Madame Brouette was beaten to the top prize by what Sissako described as " controversially beautiful but difficult to understand" Heremakono? Hardly, Absa said. Madam Brouette had won awards in European film festivals. "I don't recognise myself in this festival as I don't live in a village but a city." Describing FESPACO as a very French affair, Nigerian Ali-Balogun said this is reflected in the way FESPACO is run and how they select their juries. "It is their festival," he said. "They make desert films in which people on horses race over dry lands. This is what their funders want them to do. Even they themselves are beginning to have attitudinal changes to those stereotypes."

Ali-Balogun said Nigerians make in a week what Francophone Africa makes in a year." He added that these films are showcased in Europe and that "Africans are not seeing the films made." Saying Burkina Faso makes 10 films on celluloid per year, Ali-Balogun argues that this cannot meet the growing demands for films by Burkinabes. They should expunge from their minds their puritanical attitude that video is inferior to celluloid. Nigerians make 35 video films per week. "Celluloid and videos are merely modes of expression."

Ali-Balogun appealed to Anglophone Africa to come together in order to provide an alternative to FESPACO. "I am disappointed Sithengi, though better organised than FESPACO, is not growing to be an alternative. We in Nigeria are putting our structures together at home before we can invite others to come and see what we have" he said, adding that Nigeria will in October 2003 host a national film festival in Lagos. "This will be a Nigeria and Nigerian Diaspora festival that will later graduate into an international film festival."

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