February 11, 2005
Gadjigo Creates Film on Making of Moolaadé
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Samba
Gadjigo (right) with Mount Holyoke students in Senegal. |
A
documentary film by Samba Gadjigo, professor of French, about
the making of the award-winning film Moolaadé has been
released by New Yorker Films. The Making of Moolaadé
marks the first time that Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène,
widely credited as the father of African cinema, has allowed an
outside camera to document his work.
Gadjigo,
who is Sembène's biographer and the provider of the English subtitles
for Moolaadé, was given unrestricted access to the filmmaker
during two weeks of filming in the spring of 2002. He captured
Sembène, then 79, working 12-hour days in a dusty, remote African
village where midday temperatures usually exceeded 100 degrees.
There was no running water, and generators had to be brought in
to provide electricity.
"That
is a price to pay to make images in Africa, and Sembène believes
it is worth it," Gadjigo said. The filmmaker believes it
is important that images of Africa presented to the outside world
be created by Africans themselves, not by outsiders who impose
their own images on the continent. "To Sembène, an image
is worth dying for -- images are as important as bread and clothing."
Gadjigo
flew into Burkina Faso, bringing with him a digital video camera.
He hired another camera operator after arriving, and the two traveled
to the village where Moolaadé was being filmed.
The
documentary illustrates the difficulty of making a film in Africa.
In interview after interview, more than a dozen actors, electricians,
production personnel, camera assistants, and others connected
with the film describe the challenges presented by the environment
and the scarcity of funding. "It's an adventure, a job for
crazy people," Timothee Bosori, a production adviser, says
into the camera. "Every film that gets made is a miracle."
Electrician Maiga Hazou Sassane agrees: "It's not talent
we lack, it's equipment."
What
also comes through is the tremendous respect and affection felt
for Sembène, whose drive to reach his goals can make things difficult
for those with whom he works. "He's tough on people's weaknesses,"
Gadjigo said. "He wants to extract the best of each individual
in the crew, with a focus on productivity."
Toward
the end of the documentary, Sembène speaks about his role as a
filmmaker, and his reasons for making Moolaadé. The film
is constructed on the tension between two ancient traditions:
female circumcision and the right to offer Moolaadé, or
protection of the weak from the strong. Moolaadé tells
the story of four young girls in a small village in Senegal who,
encouraged by radio broadcasts from the outside world, revolt
against the tradition of female genital mutilation. They seek
the help of a woman in the village who offers them protection
against their seizure by the male elders of the village. Protection
of the weak is also a powerful tradition, and those who violate
it face a penalty of death.
"As
far as I am concerned, politically speaking, cinema allows me
to show my people their predicaments so they take responsibility,"
Sembène said. "They hold their destiny in their hands. Nobody
other than ourselves can solve our problems. We are in 2004; out
of 54 states of the African Union, more than 38 still practice
female circumcision. Why? I don't know! Origins? I don't know!
… But Moolaadé is not just about female circumcision, it's
about the liberation of our societies, the freedom of our people."
"Unflinching
both in its condemnation of genital mutilation and in its warm-hearted
optimism, Moolaadé is an example of humanist cinema at
its finest, a movie that reminds you of the dignity and heroism
of ordinary life," wrote A. O. Scott in the New York Times.
The
Making of Moolaadé will be shown on February 22 at 7 pm in
the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Connecticut. For more information,
call the box office at 860-278-2670.
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