Continental
quarter century

Vues d’Afrique marks its 25th year
with more awesome film premieres

TEEN TROUBLE: Johnny Mad Dog

by MATTHEW HAYS

A quarter century ago, some local self-described cinephiles made the rather bone-headed argument that African cinema didn’t really exist. Horrified by such sentiments, and put off by the local film fest programmers (who seemed to ignore the entire continent), several aficionados got together and created Vues d’Afrique. The event was an immediate hit, and continues to grow in size and stature.

This landmark 25th year is noteworthy, as the U.S. has elected its first ever African-American president. Vues d’Afrique will note this watershed moment with an evening of reflection, “And What About Obama in All of This?” this Friday, April 17 at the Cinéma Beaubien. Two documentaries will screen, one a musical comedy and the other a more serious historical overview of the events leading up to Barack Obama’s historic victory. The fest offers two other theme nights: one dedicated to women’s stories from the African diaspora, the other a tribute to soccer, in honour of the 2010 South African World Cup.

Two documentaries will be screened about the burgeoning Nigerian film industry, a country that pumps out a whopping 500 to 1000 feature-length films per year. This Is Nollywood and Nollywood Babylon both explore this national cinema, the latter film an NFB co-production directed and written by local wunderkinds Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal.

Evocative of City of God is Johnny Mad Dog, a feature by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. A motley group of teens live on the street and arm themselves, robbing as a means of survival. With monikers like No Good Advice and Captain Dust to Dust, these kids’ vicious outlook on life has been shaped by their tragic experiences. In Berni Goldblat’s Ceux de la colline, the filmmaker shows us how a small community of ragtag miners is created around one gold mine in Burkina Faso. The documentary has received praise throughout the international film-fest circuit for its unblinking portrait of the miners’ lives.

MARRIAGE AND MENDACITY: Masquerades

LIES AND RECONCILIATION

With Triomf, Michael Raeburn takes a dour look back at one of the sad stories of South African apartheid. Set during the ’90s, we meet a poor white family as they brace themselves for the first democratic, multiracial elections. They are only too aware that they live in a community that had once been predominantly black, but had been levelled by the wrecking ball and then resettled by whites. A film about the harsh and often uneasy path towards reconciliation.

In the documentary Victoire Terminus, filmmakers Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye examine the lives of a group of women boxers as they prepare for their competitive tournament in the midst of the contentious 2006 Congo election campaign. Lyes Salem’s fiction film Masquerades shows us the harsh lives of one family struggling in rural Algeria. Rym suffers from narcolepsy, and as such, many in the village feel she will never get married. Her protective brother Mounir proudly proclaims that a rich out-of-towner has proposed for her hand in marriage. This fib causes major waves throughout their community. An odd gem of a film.

This year, Vues d’Afrique gets extra interactive, inviting young non-pro filmmakers to compete in teams at creating new works in Film Sprint 100. Six teams of five young aspiring auteurs will be given equipment, various locations around the city and 100 hours to each make a six-minute short film. The six completed films will screen at the festival and then be judged by a jury. Radio-Canada will honour the winning team with a prize, and the films will be screened online.

While much of the content of the films screened at Vues d’Afrique is heavy and adult-oriented, this year the fest will again offer fare for the wee ones, Ciné-Jeunesse or Cinema for the Young, featuring the children’s films of French filmmaker Laurent Chevallier, who will be in town from April 20–22 to introduce his work.

In the spirit of Vues d’Afrique, the Cinémathèque continues its retrospective of Spike Lee, a man many argue is the most influential African-American filmmaker ever. He’s certainly been controversial. As Lee once stated, “I think it is very important that films make people look at what they’ve forgotten.”

VUES D’AFRIQUE SCREENS FROM
APRIL 16–26. INFO:
VUESDAFRIQUE.ORG