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Conference
02/05/2007-06/05/2007
Missions Abroad - MEXIQUE DELEGATION
Sidiki BAKABA, Director General of the Culture Palace in Abidjan COMPTE RENDU
The Director General of the Culture Palace in Abidjan has conducted two missions to Mexico. The first Festival of African Cinema de Mexico (Africala) of 18 to 22 April 2007 and the second International Film Festival in Acapulco from 02 to 06 May 2007. In this interview, he reported on these trips rich exchanges.
Maintenance
Christian KOCANI: Sir, what is your whole of your last two missions, Africala Festival and Film Festival in Acapulco, Mexico?
Mr Sidiki Bakaba: I was invited by Flavio Florencio who organized for the first time a film festival in Africa called Africala Mexico City, Mexico. I've given a speech on the general state of African cinema and its prospects in order to inform the 7th art of this continent to this new audience. The organization was so successful that the enthusiasm shown by the public was that we reserve usually not a first edition, but a 5èm or 6th edition as the audience was large.
CK: The Ivorian diplomatic representation was part of it?
SB: The conference has enabled Charles Koffi Ambassador to engage in truly being present and involved. It, should be emphasized, followed the movements around the two festivals. The film allowed us to talk about our country, to speak of Africa as a whole and go beyond the images to answer questions relevant enough.
CK: What the public gaze it was the African that you are and what he discovered cinema?
SB: The festival went very well. There was a lot of respect for African filmmakers even though we were only two guests, a South African and I, besides Ambassador Charles Koffi remarkable for its dynamism and its implications. So there were a handful of Africans who worthily represented Africa. The public has shown an extraordinary sensitivity. An overflow of life as it would be in Abidjan, Bamako, Kinshasa or in any African city before the images and music conveyed by these films. In sum, there is a desire to say "we want to make a bridge directly with Africa." It was even stronger than discovering that audience through culture, we rediscovered a shared history with people who also experienced the conquest, brutality and even slavery. When we went through all these tests and experienced injustice, it always comes together somewhere. Hence the sensitivity and love of the Mexican state for Africa and for all that key. He wants to listen to the talk of Africa itself and not through America or Europe. And that's very positive. So there are opportunities for Africa to expand his film to the public in South America and create a real distribution network. If this festival is supported, many good things will result, especially since as young as Flavio Florencio are motivated by the desire to always do better in the example of neighboring United States, while retaining their specificity, their culture. Africa can also cultivate this taste of the good done to move forward without losing its soul. Most of these young people think that the weapon of the future is the culture and they work. They understood that he must certainly an opening, but also independence. Because they are not prepared, for example, to accept grants anyone for an ulterior purpose of domination. We have many similarities in fauna and flora and landscape level. We might as well make films expected to take place in Côte d'Ivoire, Mexico, as some sites look around the terrain and vegetation. I made the same finding as in Haiti and some other islands.
CK: Returning to the problem of the distribution of African films is real.
SB: The spread is the problem of our cinema. And he indeed never been solved despite all the festivals that exist. A winning film in Ouagadougou did not give the guarantee to be distributed. We admire the creativity and talent of our filmmakers, but that's all. After the trophy, there's nothing. When winning at Carthage, or in another festival in North Africa, the same thing. It's just good for the film. No hope it is even dubbed into Arabic and distributed in North Africa and vice versa. For, in sub-Saharan Africa, to my knowledge, the films of our brothers from north of the continent are not distributed as it should. It's a shame. In France, even when our films are winning, they are also exceptional in rooms arthouse reserved for an audience very thin. He lacks political will. They say in speeches that cinema is a development factor. But is what we have consciousness? Is it worth the coffee or copper? We therefore need a care of ourselves, sovereignty of conscience, without being confined to ourselves, because the world is vast. The film is a reflection of African politics that does not have any real independence. We must be ourselves, in harmony with our values, hopes to share with others and break the vicious cycle of receivable. We can and must also give. We must organize ourselves, we take control. Africala has been for me a very rich experience.
CK: What about the International Film Festival in Acapulco?
SB: We were invited by its president Victor Sotomayor. It's a mega festival in Mexico located in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We counted the number of special guests and featured country this year was British. Our presence was all the more justified as we have done with Blaise N'Djéohya, there are already ten years a documentary, "Los palanqueros" or "Five hundred years of solitude", dedicated to the black minority of Colombia, Cimarron. The documentation and the production of this film bears the signature of Ayala Bakaba. Our documentary was screened and was very appreciated. Given the theme, this film could disturb, especially since it highlights a section of the Colombian people for too long overlooked. The organizers here have shown their great spirit of openness and freedom, despite the very mundane, very bon chic bon genre with the festival as guest of honor to the ambassador of Colombia. Our film reveals a reality that in no case could not show the large Colombian productions. The Mexicans were pleased to discover this "minority" (which corresponds to 45% of the population), and our film has also led to look themselves in the face, because there are also blacks (25%) in the population Mexican even outside the general miscegenation.
CK: The debate that followed the screenings of "Los palanqueros" took place in what atmosphere?
SB: In other festivals, organizers feared would create a false note. But then, this was not the case. After the film, we took the floor without complex, Ambassador Charles Koffi, producer Bakaba Ayala, the first counselor of the culture at the Embassy of Côte d'Ivoire in Mexico and myself. Everything is mentioned in the film, including human rights. The exchanges were open and we even felt a certain revolt, but peaceful and lawful, some Mexicans facing the situation presented in the documentary. At all points of view, the film was well received. We have also had contacts with universities who want to buy the film. South Africa has also discovered and invited us to a festival to go on this. We were received with great respect, as it should. And this bracket with the majority of Western festivals where Africans were received but by the back door like extras. Our greatest directors, even at festivals dedicated to Africa, are trivialized, marginalized. While our films should help the rest of the world to remove their number plates on Africa and Africans.
CK: What great moments you remember these festivals?
SB: On the closing day of Africala while I took pictures, I am attracted by Djembe notes. I approach and I discovered our perfect Mexicans playing rhythms with our instruments and singing. They sang in Malinke with our costumes. When I approached him after their show, they said they learned that in Africa, Guinea. This is an example of love and self-giving. In Acapulco, the day of the festival, the restaurant where we ate our dinner (which in reality was that the seat specifically arranged the festival), has magically transformed overnight into a great movie set in the sea, ready to shoot. I have long admired the morning and kept in memory. It was beautiful.
Interview conducted by Christian KOCANI
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