Four South African feature films are in competition at the upcoming FESPAPCO (Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ougadougou), which takes place in Burkina Faso from 28 February to 7 March. They are: Michael Raeburn’s Triomf, Johan Kani’s Nothing But The Truth, Ralph Ziman’s Jerusalema and Jann Turner’s White Wedding.
In the Documentary category Jane Lipman’s Courting Justice and Zola Maseko’s The Manuscripts of Timbuktu are in competition. (Screen Africa readers will recall that Maseko is a previous winner of FESPACO’s grand prize, the Golden Stallion, for his feature film Drum.)
Other South African productions in competition are Khalo Matabane’s When We Were Black (in the Series & Sitcoms TV/Video category), and Ritendra Naran’s The Last Supper and Minky Schlesinger’s Gugu No Andile, both in the Fiction TV/Video category.
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is partnering with public broadcaster SABC and pay-TV channel M-Net to host a South African Pavilion at FESPACO. South African was officially represented at FESPACO for the first time in 2003.
This edition of FESPACO marks the 40th anniversary of the festival and will pay tribute to Ousmane Sembene, doyen of African film and pioneer of FESPACO, who passed away on 9 June 2007.
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, FESPACO has invited eminent filmmakers, academics, writers, artists and communicators from all over the world. All of the film industry trades will be represented, from fashion, to music, and even politicians will join to celebrate cinema in Africa.
The 40th anniversary of FEPACI (Federation of Pan-African Filmmakers) will also be celebrated at FESPACO.
Screen Africa’s February issue, which features an article on FESPACO and FEPACI, will be distributed at the festival.
