Sundance Film Exposes Students To The World Of African Cinema

On Thursday, January 29, Ms. Bennion’s French classes and Ms. Hardy’s film productions classes of Highland High attended a screening of the Sundance film, Sembene! The film was a documentary based off of the legacy, life, and times of Ousmane Sembene, the man renowned as the father of African cinema. The film gave insight into the mind of Ousmane Sembene, born 1923 in Senegal. Working on a dock in Marseilles during the 1950s, Sembene was struck by a lucky misfortune when he broke his back, forcing him to be hospitalized for six months, during which time he grasped the opportunity of self-education. After this ordeal and a year studying film in Russia, he returned to his mother country, embarking on an effort to be the voice of Africans through an African’s eye, and not that of the white men by which their countries were being occupied. Sembene remonstrated against social injustice in Africa, and while honored as a brilliant artist and activist, the film brought to light Sembene’s less reputable side. In mentoring and raising funds for a group of novice Africans filmmakers, Sembene took their idea and the money for himself. The film showed Sembene as the man he truly was: with flaws, despite setting himself to the task of liberating the people of Africa through the medium of the cinema. Since Ousmane Sembene’s death in 2007, an ongoing project to restore his films is being implemented, led by the directors of Sembene! Each of Sembene’s film is to be released periodically after restoration.