#5: Aboubakar Sanogo (African Film Heritage Project)

Lecture

In this lecture, Aboubakar Sanogo talks about the stakes and challenges of film preservation in Africa and shares his work in the African Film Heritage Project (AFHP). This initiative aims to preserve and restore African cinema and help raise awareness of African films by getting them shown in theatres and at film festivals around the world.

Sanogo was closely involved in the restoration process of Soleil Ô (1970) by Med Hondo, the first title of 50 films restored, exhibited, and distributed under the African Film Heritage Project.

Introduction by Giovanna Fossati (Chief Curator at Eye and Professor of Film Heritage at the University of Amsterdam). Q&A in collaboration with the Master students of the This is Film! class at the University of Amsterdam.

Screening: Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun!) (Med Hondo, FR/MR 1970, 104’)

Soleil Ô is the feature film directorial debut of Med Hondo, a prolific Mauritanian filmmaker. It premiered at the Cannes Critics' Week in 1970 and received critical acclaim. The film follows the life of a black West African immigrant as he journeys to Paris in search of work and a better life. The work tackles issues of race and identity and is a call against racism and discrimination.

Guest

Aboubakar Sanogo is an Associate Professor in Film Studies at Carleton University. His research interests include African cinema, Afro-diasporic cinema, transnational and world cinema, film archiving and film heritage, colonial cinema, and postcolonialism.

As the North American Regional Secretary for the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), he initiated and oversees the FEPACI Archival Project. In that capacity, he is heading on its behalf, the African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), a major film preservation and restoration initiative in partnership with Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and UNESCO.