http://www.indiewire.com/movies/movies_041229fore.html

Best Film:
1. "Moolaade"
2. "Distant"
3. "Notre Musique"
4. "Blissfully Yours" and "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring"
5. "Time of the Wolf"

Best Documentary:
1. "The Five Obstructions"
2. "S21: Khmer Rouge Killing Machine"
3. "Story of the Weeping Camel"
4. "Born into Brothels"
5. "Arna's Children" and "Control Room"

Best Director:
1. Jean-Luc Godard ("Notre Musique") and Ousmane Sembène ("Moolaade")
2. Nuri Bilge Ceylan ("Distant")
3. Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries")

Best Screenplay:
1. "Crimson Gold" by Abbas Kiarostami
2. "Moolaade" by Ousmene Sembene
3. "Maria Full of Grace" by Joshua Marston

Best Actor:
1. Javier Bardem ("The Sea Inside")
2. Jean-Pierre Darroussin ("Red Lights")
3. Gael Garcia Bernal ("Bad Education"/"Motorcycle Diaries")

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Rodrigo de la Serna ("The Motorcycle Diaries")
2. John Malkovich ("A Talking Picture")
3. Anthony Wong ("Infernal Affairs")

Best Actress:
1. Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace")
2. Fatoumata Coulibaly ("Moolaade")
3. Esther Gorintin ("Since Otar Left")

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Esther Gorintin ("Since Otar Left")
2. Katrin Sass ("Goodbye Lenin!")
3. Dinara Droukarova ("Since Otar Left") and Shiang-chyi Chen ("Goodbye Dragon Inn")

Best First Film:
1. "The Return"
2. "Blind Shaft"
3. "Since Otar Left"
4. "Osama" and "Maria Full of Grace"
5. "Born into Brothels," "Noi Albino," "The Outskirts," "Reconstruction," "Silent Waters," "The Story of the Weeping Camel"

Best Technical Achievement:
1. Xiaoding Zhao, Cinematography ("House of Flying Daggers")
2. Christopher Doyle, Cinematography ("Hero")
3. Jean-Luc Godard, Editing ("Notre Musique," "Hell" sequence)

Moolaade has actually appeared on quite a few top 10 lists. Surprising, considering outside of Ebert & Roeper, I heard nothing of it. Definite rental.

Yes. DK, I was flipping through the top ten list of the two Boston Globe reviewers last week and it made both of their top 5! (I think fourth in both but my memory isn't all too keen). I have never heard of it before. I don't think its really been released here, or if so, in one theatre before the New Year to try and get Oscar availablitiy. But I remember one year, only 1 of the 5 foreign flicks nominated in the oscars had been released for people to see (it was the Nowhere in africa year) and this is looking to be like that. Anyways, the critics are raving about it thus far.

What is it even about?

Well, I am taking my first ever film class, and surprise surprise, the first country we are covering is Senegal and we're covering the films of Ousmane Sembène. I already saw two today. A short one called The Cart Driver (1963) and a longer film called The Money Order (1970). Very interesting. He's considered (according to the professor) to be the first African Director to deal with such content. The dependant word being "considered" since there are apparently a few others who never quite reached notoriety. But Sembene did and Moolaade is going to get a bit of love in this class. We are also going to see The Making of Moolaade and read about African Cinema and Sembene. I will have alot of info to feed into this thread over the next three weeks before the class moves on to Cuba and Japan. (Those are the three countries we're covering). Very exciting, so I hope to hear from everyone on this movie soon.

Fun! Be sure to keep us updated.

This is laughable.

Oh, I remember you saying that it was a bit 81/2 style but with the director also being an actor. So it was about making a film, and was semi-autobiographical but fully scripted (of course). More a mockumentary?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barom Sarret (The Cart Driver) - 1963

The short follows a Cart Driver who works in Dakar. He picks up people on the way to the center everyday, but no one ever pays him. He wonder when he will be paid, but is not particularly aggressive. He's used to it. The opening sounds are the Call to Prayer, and whenever the cart moves through the streets the music is ethnic. That is, until a man asks for his wife to be taken to the maternity hospital. The hospital is a relic of colonial structure and instantly European classical music is heard. The Cart Driver is asked to bring a man and his dead baby to a cemetery, but upon arriving the man does not have the proper papers. The Cart Driver, though he feels terrible, leaves the dead baby and man at the gate of the funeral. As he is a leaving a wealthy man asks him to be taken to the wealthy side of town. Barom Sarrets are not allowed there. But the man promises that he has the money and power and that he needs to get to there. Against his better judgment the Driver takes him there. Things go poorly, the man leaves quickly without paying and a policeman fines the driver, takes his medal, and takes his cart. The final scene shows the Driver leaving the city and walking home with just his Horse. What is he going to tell his wife? How will they eat? He stops at a red light and muses about how modern culture has rendered them all so automated. They just go and stop (people that is) according to when they are told, push on, and keep moving. But he feels left behind. He gets home and tells his wife what happened. She says not to worry and that there will be food, she leaves the house and he wonders were she is going. The film ends there.

I'm pretty sure there are only so many option for where the wife went. Either to bed for or steal food, or to sell herself for some money. Its a very matter of fact exit and ending to the movie, so I guess it does not matter.

The Driver's story was not unique, which is why I didn't harbor personal sympathy for him. He was clearly a microcosm or a larger social commentary on post-colonial Senegal. A metaphor, so I felt bad for the general situation more than any one person.

The film is even more interesting because the Professor asked us if we felt like we'de seen such a movie before, and I being the gushy De Sica fan that I am said Yes, The Bicycle Thieves. He said that Sembene was greatly influenced by the post-WWII Italian gritty realists. Mostly because they were all working in similar spaces of economic disparity and despair. CineCitta wasn't really being used after WWII, no one had the money to repair it. The directors were going into the streets and filming sort of the live underbelly of Italy. Senegal isn't particularly wealthy, and didn't have any production studios at all, so Sembene took it to the streets as well. In fact, even his much more wealthy 1970 production that I will talk about next, he still had to film and then mail all the footage to Paris to be developed and then mailed back. His first short about the lost cart is pretty parallel to the lost bicycle.

RottenTomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moolaade/ has it at 98% fresh and 100% fresh cream of the crop. I just finished some reading on him now and Sembene is also a novelist. Probably the book that was most widely distributed is called God's Bits of Wood. Anyone heard/read it? Actually the more I've been reading about him in this book the more excited I get about seeing this movie.

RT Synopsis:

African cinema's founding father, 81-year-old Ousmane Sembene, continues to be its most fiery, provocative spirit. Extending the strong feminist consciousness that marked his previous triumph Faat Kiné (as well as such earlier classics as Black Girl and Ceddo), Moolaadé is a rousing polemic directed against the stillcommon African practice of female circumcision.

The action is set in a small African village, where four young girls facing ritual "purification" flee to the household of Collé Ardo Gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from mutilation.

Collé invokes the time-honored custom of moolaadé (sanctuary) to protect the fugitives, and tension mounts as the ensuing stand-off pits Collé against village traditionalists (both male and female) and endangers the prospective marriage of her daughter to the heir-apparent to the tribal throne.

Though the subject matter might seem weighty, this buoyant film is anything but–Sembene places the action amid a colorful, vibrant tapestry of village life and expands the narrative well beyond the bounds of straightforward, socially conscious realism employing an imaginative array of emblematic metaphors, mythic overtones, and musical numbers. Winner of the Grand Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Moolaadé was selected by many prominent critics as the best film of the entire festival. -- © New Yorker Films

Anyone yet have any freaking idea why Moolaade couldn't get an oscar nod?

Anyways...coming up later tonight I'm going to do a bit of a biography on Sembene and get an official review for The Money Order in. Very interesting disccussions around his use of African Oral History techniques. His films have been considered almost unbearably slow paced, and he argued that he was doing the films for large illiterate sections of his country, etc. He said being bombarded by a rapid succession of images doesn't necessarily allow for the audiance to synthesize the message he's getting across. He also argued one can make revolutionary films without them sparking the revelution. This is evident in the closing lines of The Money Order, where a mailman says the "change" in the corrupt system will begin with his generation.

Its interesting to consider this since I felt The Money Order was actually a very personal story and ambiguous in its discussions, not a "Viva La Revolucione" type film. Howver, the comparisons between early sub-Saharan film and Cuban films has been made, and made often. Also, since distribution and viewing are limited in Senegal, was this film really just for the "local" masses?

Y'all that peak into this thread get an early peek at my official review Of the Moeny Order. :wink:

Mandabi (The Money Order) - 1968

Ousmane Sembene is considered one of the founding fathers of Senegalese film, and most likely the most warmly received African cinema director internationally. Mandabi (The Money Order) is his 1968 feature-length exploration of Dakar class stratification, illiteracy, and individual character. The film follows Ibrahim Dieng (Makhouredia Gueye) and his two wives through the events following the reception of a money order in the mail from a hard working nephew in Paris. Dieng experiences one obstacle after another in trying to get the money order cashed, and throughout the film his actions continue to allow for a nostalgic and hopeful interpretation of his character. His wives are strong willed but caring, and the three of them are suddenly thrown into chaotic and comic situations involving their perceived new found wealth. The story begins with Dieng’s wives quickly buying some food from the local store in anticipation of cashing the order. They awake the following morning to find a line of neighbors and vendors awaiting them at their doorstep. Dieng is not an uncaring man, and promises to help everyone out as soon as he cashes the order.

Dieng unfortunately is illiterate, and when he goes to the post office to cash the order a reader (look for a Hitchcockian appearance by Sembene) informs him that his nephew is giving Dieng only a portion of the order. A second portion must be reserved for the nephew’s mother, and the sizeable remainder for the nephew himself. Of course, Dieng now also owes the letter reader some money. Only Dieng cannot cash the order because he lacks identification. In order to receive an I.D. from the local department, Dieng has to produce a birth certificate. He does, but cannot read it, and neither does the certificate properly outline his age. Dieng needs to have a photo taken as well. All these mundane tasks become insurmountable demands for Dieng, who finally thinks to visit a wealthy nephew and ask for assistance. The nephew attempts to get Dieng an I.D. tries through bribery. All of these situations are coupled with visits to Dieng’s house by neighbors asking for rice, money, and just about everything else possible. Dieng can’t say no, he is a devout and caring Muslim and believes in tenets of support and promise. In frustration one of his wives hides the last of the family’s rice from him in anticipation of his giving it all away otherwise.

At first it is hard to harbor any sympathy for Dieng. Sembene does not make him the most pleasant character. He is a bit loud, lazy, and domineering. He’s also, clearly, unemployed. Why else could he spend day after day trying to overcome obstacles to cash the money order? At one point, he is even accused of being a lazy man with two wives and nothing more. But after numerous visitors and vendors come to Dieng’s house, one realizes no one is stably employed. Even Dieng’s Parisian relative is only a hard working street cleaner. Once this aspect of Dieng’s “laziness” is taken into broader social context, he is a far more affable character. He is well meaning and intentioned, and Sembene makes him honorable in such respects. His wives lie to the community to clear him of all the financial obligations he cannot fulfill and he spends days feeling guilty that they would do such a thing as lie. They themselves have misgivings, but argue that Dieng’s name was being ruined because everyone assumed he was holding out on support rather than having his own financial problems.

Sembene manages to weave an element of suspense into the script despite the very paced unfolding of Dieng’s experiences. The order remains in the post office for only two weeks, mysterious men drive by Dieng’s house and speak about the prospect of acquiring it, and Dieng’s rich nephew is double-dealing in French when Dieng only understands Wolof. Dieng becomes more and more nervous, and ultimately begins habitually playing with the beads on his necklace. Even though he promised to help everyone around him, whenever he needs help he is taken advantage of. The family falls deeper and deeper into desperation but Sembene manages to maintain a lighter aspect to every condition. The three main characters are tough to relate to, but it is equally as tough not to sympathize with them.

Sembene has one more critical aspect to Dieng’s personal story that renders the entire family story allegorical in nature. He introduces the local mail carrier as an integral part of the story. The carrier is the man who first delivers the money order and comes by daily to inform the family that the order is still at the post office. The carrier’s identity is a bit to direct a metaphor for “the bringer of good messages,” but the parallel is still a strong one. When all is lost and seems to be in disarray, “we” the carrier informs Dieng and his wives, will be the good people that start the revolution. Not through violence or wealth but through communal identity and kind-heartedness. Sembene abstains from being too condescending however, as while the mailman speaks an infinite amount of beggars line up to demand help from the ever poorer Dieng, and the audience is left to wonder which route he and his family will actually choose to take in the future.

B+


I'll keep building information towards Moolaade, I will see it within the next two or three weeks, but I might just break down and go see it earlier in the theatres instead of waiting for the class to get around to it.

Just saw Moolaade, hope to get the full review in soon.

The interesting thing to notice about this movie is how far "African" identity as far as film has come. At least as far as Sembene. In the 60's there was alot of post-colonial backlash. Western influence is bad, or barring that, at least not well handled. In The Money Order most of the criticism was towards western beurocracy, the ultimate "bad" nephwe speaks French, and Revolution (as the mailman put it) would come from the indigenous people. Well its 35 years later and its ok to say maybe there are tradtions that really need to go. Sembene does a failrly straightforward, uplifting (in the end) piece about Female circumcision. Its a pretty tough film to handle in these respects, but what is most interesting is the outright criticism and rejection of the practice as a fundamentally feminist start. One woman grants four kids that hide in her home sanctuary "Moolaade" and the village has a large fallout over the rebellious mood. The woman is the second of three wives, and the first one, though having given her own children over, admits it was against her will. The two of them plant the seeds of change so to speak in their refusal to turn the children over to the town to be cut and re-sown. A running theme is the radios which all the villagers have in their homes, and which the men try to confiscate and burn because they think the influence of the radio is what is leading to the questioning of the female cutting ritual. There are many women in support of the practice, so its not outright clear in the beginning. But as the religious leaders remove their radios, a Parisian son returns for a wedding, and two young girls kill themselves rather than be cut, the situation becomes more polarized.

There is also a food nd goods vendor who while being painted as a womanizer in the beginning of the movie, is ultimately the most progressive man (because he has travelled all over and used to be a soldier) and who voiced support for the heroines when one of them is getting whipped into calling an end to the Moolaade. The moolaade itself is not a direct translation to sanctuary and also has more spiritual and religious implications. No one will break her power unless she calls an end to the moolaade herself. Her husband is recruited into beating her, the women who perform the circumcisions challenge her, and her own daughter (whom she refused to have cut in the past) is upset with her over losing the marriage to the rich Parisian because she was not "Purified" when she was younger.

A harsh criticism of a practise that should long ago have become obsolete, Sembene has moved beyond questions of national and indigenous glamorization in the media in order to turn the camera on an issue he clearly feels very strongly about. Very rough and a bit too clear a gender dichotomy by the end, but none-the-less an excellent movie with determination and well constructed characters. Strong personalities and questioning of religious and social practices.

A-

Here it is Guys! My official Moolaade Review. Y'all get to read it before it even goes up on the main page!

Moolaade

In his most recent film, 81 year old Senegalese veteran director Ousmane Sembene produces a scathingly simple criticism on the subject of female circumcision, and through its lens explores the opportunities for cultural exchange between the West and sub-Saharan cultures. The pleasant metamorphosis of film and indigenous African identity is fully apparent in Moolaade where Sembene allows for the camera and content to explore internal cultural structures rather than exonerate them. Sembene has often argued for cinema’s space in cultural identity, and has expounded on its importance as a source of information in the face of illiteracy and differing consumption habits. In his earlier works, such as 1968’s Mandabi (The Money Order) Sembene criticized post-colonial structures of bureaucracy and corruption, and argued that the future of the Senegal lay with the honesty and practices of its masses. In Moolaade, Sembene is not nearly as certain that glamorizing cultural and religious heritage won’t lead to stagnation and pain.

Moolaade opens with four young girls begging for support from Colle Gallo, the second wife of a villager who refused to have her own daughter, Amasatou, cut and sown seven years earlier. Colle has developed a reputation for denouncing the act and grants the children “Moolaade,” a form of sanctuary that carries religious implications. The children are not to cross a rope tied across the entrance to the living quarters of the family, and the villagers demanding the girls be handed over cannot enter either. What ensues is a lengthy dispute involving several fractions of the community including the women who perform the ceremonies, the religious men of the village, Colle, and Hadjatou, a fellow elder wife (1st wife) who supports Colle’s endeavors in her own style. The situation is fairly clear, the girls fear the mutilation, but their challenging of the tradition gets Colle, Hadjatou, and Amasatou in trouble. Amasatou has been promised to the most prestigious man from the village, Doyenne, who has left to Paris and become wealthy by local standards. Upon his return to meet her, he is offered instead another wife because Amasatou was never “Purified.” Amasatou’s anger at rejection proves that such traditions are maintained not just through law but as well through cultural pressure.

Sembene introduces Mercenaire, a local good salesman, as the most ambiguous and intelligent character in the film. Viewers are first introduced to him as a bit of a womanizer, he invites every woman to come by his place after sunset. He also sells European products such as radios, bras, and batteries. His collection of objects is very conscious, as are his clothes. He is one of only two men who do not dress in traditional garb, rather, he is consistently shown wearing an undershirt and baggy shorts. He jokes about jacking up bread prices and at one point reveals his past as a soldier working for the U.N. Mercenaire received dishonorable discharge and five years in prison for revealing corrupt military officials. His past is perhaps Sembene’s way of reminding us of The Money Order’s optimistic view of eliminating Western corruption. On the other hand, his worldly travels is also a redeeming quality as he constantly mumbles under his breathe at some of the traits he finds atrocious including genital mutilation.

After two escaped young girls are found drowned in a well, the male villagers begin to question why the tradition of purification is becoming increasingly challenged. All the women have radios and listen to Western talk, the radios must be confiscated. Sembene makes a point of filming the ever growing pile of radios simultaneously to the female outcry for a return of the goods they worked for and purchased. Mercenaire looks on first in mild amusement, and later in anger. Doyenne finds the religious leaders actions disturbing as well, and pointedly visits Amasatou despite public knowledge that she is not sown. He has been removed the situation for quite some time however, and is hesitant to challenge his father’s actions unlike the determined Colle and the cynical Hadjatou.

As the situation becomes more polarized, some of the town’s women begin to sympathize with the Moolaade, more so because their own habits are coming under heavier and heavier scrutiny. The split is not easily gendered however, as the women responsible for conducting the mutilation rituals do not want to yield their beliefs, nor do the mother’s of the escaped children. Sembene deals heavily with gender themes in many of his films, and his use of strong willed wives as a vehicle for respect and change is increasingly manifest in Moolaade. Colle must utter the words to recant the sanctuary she has granted the children, and the village leaders manipulate her husband into thinking he has been shown up by his wives. He is not a mean or chauvinistic man by nature. He has never hit any of his wives or children, and in fact even allowed Colle to deny Amasatou’s purification. But in a moment of harsh berating he is coerced into whipping Colle in order to force the recantation of her protection. The scene is made public and is a polarizing moment in the community. Sembene uses such violence to mobilize both support for a broad feminist agenda and as a personal narrative between several of the main characters.

A harsh criticism of a practice that should long ago have become obsolete, with Moolaade Sembene has moved beyond questions of national and indigenous glamorization in self-produced media in order to turn the camera on a gravitons issue he clearly feels has universal implications. Moolaade is rough and the dichotomy between genders is a bit too accessible, but never-the-less it is a determined and strong film with intelligent characters, colour, and a relevant broader social commentary.

A-

I'm glad Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Catalina Sandino Moreno, The Motorcycle Diaires and Maria Full Of Grace received a few nods. All three were good films, Maria edging out the other two for the #1 slot of the three.

Well I saw another Semebene Film yesterday Faat Kine about a single mother of two that runs a gas station in Dakar. Its a movie he did back in 2000, and it is considered the first in a trilogy with Moolaade being the second. Currently, at the ripe old age of 81, he's working on the third installemnt.

Anyhow, this one was my least favorite of the ones I've seen, but almost everyone else in the class said it was their most favorite. Its still pretty good, about a B, but I felt it was often too preachy and concise. The woman and her two friends meet for ice cream and talk about using condoms and the AIDS epidemic. Her son gets into a huge fight with his maternal father who abandoned them when when the son was born. The arguement is very clear as the son accuses his father's generation of talking the talk but not walking the walk of the generations responsible for building Africa into a better nation. Sembene chew off a ton in this movie dealing with everything from teen preganany to std's to literacy and education, to family structure and economy. Its pretty ambitious. He also uses more complex film techniques such as flashbacks, etc. Pretty good, and Kine, the heroine is a real character. I like how in this movie and Moolade he starts making the individuals less generic. They really have their own identities and humor, etc.

It'll be interesting to see what his third installement is about since the first was about the new urban generation and the second about truly rural villages. Both included self criticism of traditions and were not entirely condemning of "the West."

Well I watched a short documentary on the making of the Moolade yesterday, and what a nightmare. basically its in the middle of nowhere and many of the workers argued that as much desire and talent and vision as people have, if the technology isn't there, its a tough advance. Out in the middle of Burkina Faso they were really improvising on fixing cameras, etc. One thing I also learned was about the sort of improv factor of the movie. Its supposed to be in the vein of the Italian neo-realists and French new-wave, etc, who thought scripting everything ahead of time killed the ambitions of a movie. Here, the assistant director was randomly asked to be the role of Mercenerie. I didn't know that was the ad when I watched the movie. All the actors and actresses were very excited to work with Sembene, and of course there was much on the spot casting etc. He's a demanding man and everyone called him "papa" or "uncle" because of his status as the head man of African cinema. They interview him as well, and he always his this little pipe he's smoking but is in shorts and a t-shirt. The final comment of his on the film is that it is more than about just female circumcision, its about liberation and advancement, etc.

I just purchased two of his novels yesterday, Xala, and Gods Bits of Wood, so I'll let everyone who about those as well.

Read some of his work for a paper and am halfway through Gods Bits of Wood right now.

Finished Xala. Its a Sembene book that I read for a paper because we've been watching all of his films in class. Its a good read, very short, maybe 80 pages, about a man cursed with Xala (impotence) on the eve of the marriage to his third wife and his election to President of the commerce board. Its pretty good, as he El Hadji (the man) spends his time falling apart and thinking he was cursed by one of the women in his life, only to find out its due to his business policy and not his marriages. Its a smart way of critiquing both systems.

I've noticed a trend in his literature and films and how sympathetic they are towards relating female characters to the future of Africa.

Anyways, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moolaade/ it had 46 reviews with only one of them being rotten. That's 98% and 100% Cream of the Crop. The one that was wrotten was dissappointed in it compared to his past films (not read independantly). And admittedly Moolaade is more dramatic due to its setting. His other films happened in Dakar, as I've mentioned above and had alot more to do with exploring the urban setting. his relocation to a village made the story line simpler, but I htought it worked very well.

New Yorker film is so small a distribtuion (it handles all of Sembene's film, and as I've noticed, alot of African cinema) so Moolaade pretty much just travelled in film festivals and barely even got limited release. That's too bad and will also mean it will have tough access as a rental. I hope anyone who notices it playing at a festival near-by makes the effort to go out and watch it (wink wink). And I'm still dying to know who the other two people that listed it in the nomination rounds for the KJ awards were.

Nice to see some coverage in the papers. Burkina Faso is going to quickly overtake Nigeria and Senegal for producing the most movies out of any nation on the African continent. I know Smebene specifically left Dakar (where he filmed his other movies) and Senegal to film in a village in BF for Moolaade because he has visions of making BF a center for African film. He talks about it in the short doc we've done, and they do have a film festival there every two years in the capital, Ouagadougou. Interesting things on the horizon I am sure.

Too early to start a thread for it, since its barely into pre-production, so I thought I'd leave an update here where I already commented on Faat Kina and Moolaade. I know they were part of a trilogy, and that at the ripe old age of 83-ish, Sembene would be starting the last of the three. This is what its about apprently, and will probably be set in Dakar like his other films.

Yes, that's right, this thread is never going to die. Even after I'm long gone.

fyi for anyone in the New York City area.

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs/4- ... rica05.htm

MOOLAADÉ
Ousmane Sembene, Senegal, 2004; 124m.
Jula & French with English subtitles.
MOOLAADÉ is a rousing film directed against the still-common African practice of female circumcision. Set in a small village, four girls facing ritual "purification" flee to the household of Collé Ardo Gallo Sy, a strong-willed woman who has managed to shield her own teenage daughter from mutilation. Collé invokes the time-honored practice of moolaadé (sanctuary) to protect the young fugitives. Tension mounts as the ensuing stand-off pits Collé against village traditionalists (both males & females), endangering the prospective marriage of her daughter to the heir-apparent to the tribal throne. One of the biggest hits at the 2004 New York Film Festival.
followed by
THE MAKING OF MOOLAADÉ
Samba Gadjigo, Senegal, 2004; 20m. French with English subtitles.
As somebody says in this short documentary "Making a film in Africa is an adventure." The shooting of MOOLAADÉ took place in a small remote village in Burkina Faso and brought together a diverse group of people who were proud be part of the process, contributing to the success of Sembene's latest film.
Thurs April 21: *6; Sat April 23: *6:15



Guess what the asterisks mean? Just guess?

*Ousmane Sembene will be there personally to lead a discussion after the films*

If you're anywhere in the area I suggest you check it out. I have seen both the above films, but have clearly never heard him speak (I hadn't even known of his existance until sometime around when xia kicked off this thread actually) so I'm going to try to get down there on the 23rd. Hope some of you guys can make it and here speak the man considered one of the Fathers of African Cinema!

Since this is essentially the Official Ousmane Sembene thread...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070610/wl ... 0610211915



Unfortunately I've only seen two of his films - one bored me silly (Xala) the other captivated me in a way most films only wish they could (Moolaade). Such a damn sad loss to the medium and a film movement that's somehow still only in its early stages after 40 years.

I saw Xala in my film class. Very interesting film. That end scene nearly made me vomit. But I found parts of it pretty funny.

Xala, I loved as a book. Its my favorite of his novels from the three I have read. I've read Black Docker since I posted in this thread. I do not know about the Xala film adaptation, however. I've never seen it, and have heard it is not his best work as far as film goes.

Anyways, heard this finally came out on DVD. Who has seen it since? I'd love to know what you thought.

*waits (im)patiently*

FINALLY got around to watching it again, first time since I watched it nearly three years ago in the theater. I still think this is one of the very best films of the decade, and a message film that really is powerful, because it's so passionate, and so full of life and compassion for its characters, that you love these women and how strong they are. It really is an empowering film, and anyone with access to it NEEDS to see it. Dolce and I can't be the only members of the Cult of Moolaade!

Yeah. Its gone up in my estimations over time as well. I know for a fact you can get it through netflix now, so I think we need to refine our methods for applying pressure Jon. We need to go after zennier. If he likes it, half the forums will hear about it in a matter of seconds. We should also press xiayun and Chris. The former because he can spread the news to the b.o. guys and I know he would like this movie, and the latter because he's actually listened to some of my recs in the past...which few people actually do.

dolce, i think we've disagreed twice over films - i'm pretty damn sure i'd like it. i probably align most with you in terms of taste - freakishly, usually.

i smell a trip to the dungeons of the media resource center in the next sixteen hours... hmm...

i love summer. days off, and tons of films to watch. i'm even filling myself in on obscure almodovar.