A new wave of African documentaries is on the program for the 44and edition of Cinéma du réel, in Paris. Young directors burst into the wake of their elders, whose films are selected at major festivals (Dieudo Hamadi, Hassen Ferhani, etc.). Already presented at the Berlinale in February, We students!, from the Central African Republic, 25-year-old Rafiki Fariala – a mind-blowing dive into the Bangui campus, with his young daughters harassed by teachers – is a good example. The film will be the subject of a production “case study”, on Tuesday March 15, during a meeting hosted by Hicham Falah, general delegate of Fidadoc, Agadir International Documentary Film Festival (Morocco). Hicham Falah explains to World how “South-South” cooperation mechanisms are being set up in Africa, allowing authors to better control the creative process and develop their own stories, relieved of Western gaze.
What does “South-South” cooperation mean when it comes to African documentaries?
It is a question of setting up, in a pan-African approach, tools for aid to development (writing of films) and co-production, which make it possible to preserve the identity of the works as well as the rights to exploit them. Thus, on the initiative of Chiraz Latiri, former director of the Tunisian National Center for Cinema and Image (2017-2019), and Minister of Culture from February to September 2020, we have created an author’s residence, Sentoo (a Wolof word), with which are associated the film centers of seven countries – Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast and Togo. It’s not yet the big night, but this club, or forum, has enabled Senegal, for example, to help Mali design a film fund. It is up to us to invent our tools for African documentaries.
There are other valuable mechanisms, such as national funds, some of which are open to authors from neighboring territories (Senegalese, South African funds, or the pan-African Africa Documentary, etc.). All these tools must be distinguished from “South-South” co-production mechanisms emanating from the North, which can be a source of perverse effects.
What are the problems generated by Western or European aid?
Some measures are decided in Brussels, without consultation. There is also money that arrives too soon – without having the professional fabric and the films of sufficient quality to “mop up”. As for the Anglo-Saxon program Steps, with its catch-all name “Generation Africa”, it responds to a logic similar to Netflix: films can be produced in their entirety, in return for which Steps recovers the rights to the works, with here a desire to editorialize sales topics, such as migration.
I have thus seen projects deviate, such as this film by Delphine Yerbanga, which won an award in 2021 at the Fespaco – Ouagadougou festival (Burkina Faso) – which was initially called In the footsteps of a father for six years : the story of a man who had several lives, in different African countries. At the end of post-production, the title became In the footsteps of a migrant, while the character has nothing of a migrant, in the dramatic sense that we currently give him. On the other hand, structures financed by Anglo-Saxon foundations such as Docubox, in Kenya, can lead to more virtuous models, truly piloted by a local operator.
Are financial aids enough?
No, and the training needs are enormous. The filmmaker Alain Gomis created the Yennenga center in Dakar to train editors and colourists, but there are still very few African editors with real experience. And we have very few producers who are both locally rooted and connected to the networks of major international festivals.