11/12/2002

A possible solution to the production aspects of this problem was suggested by Balufu Bakuapa Kanyinda whose Afro@digital was a sort of declaration of independence of African cinema: “if you want to make independent films you have to go in new directions. Digital is the third revolution of cinema and the new frontier of freedom of expression without being forced to compromise.”
The tone adopted by Abderrahmane Sissako was more conciliatory. Sissako directed La vie sur la Terre (Life on Earth), a medium-length feature that was commissioned by France and which was meant to represent the point of view of the population of Africa at the dawning of the third Millennium. This is a great film that was very clearly not subjected to any special form of conditioning. “I think that a director must always be thought of in the universal sense of the term. My reference is Tarkovskij, a filmmaker whose every film contained an additional element of poetry. I don’t believe that talking about a film industry that is corrupted by European money is right. The fact that my personal aesthetic changed depends on my personal reasons. The same is true for another great director from Mali like Souleymane Cissé who most certainly did not make his films to be seen at the Cannes film festival. Let’s begin by thinking of ourselves first and foremost as filmmakers and perhaps things will get better.”