Cannes winner highlights African film festival
Story by James Hill. Photos courtesy of Cascade Festival of African Films.
It attracts more than 4,500 film-goers to a month-long schedule of cinema.
The 18th edition of Portland Community College's Cascade Festival of African Films commences in February with a Cannes Film Festival award-winner and a visit by one of Cameroon's most influential filmmakers.
The Cascade Festival of African Films, organized entirely by volunteers, is offered to the public free of charge and has shown more than 240 films since its inception in 1991.
Venues include:
- Room 104 of the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building at PCC's Cascade Campus (705 N. Killingsworth St)
- Hollywood Theatre (4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd.)
- McMenamins Kennedy School Theatre (5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.)
Days of Glory
This year's month-long event, starting Friday, Feb. 1, and running through to Saturday, March 1, will open with a screening of Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory," the hard-hitting winner of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Exceptional both as a war film and as a study in colonial exploitation, "Days of Glory" (7 p.m., Feb. 1, at the Hollywood Theatre) follows a group of North Africans who find themselves in Europe during World War II, fighting to liberate a country that holds them in colonial servitude.
In the second week of the festival, Cameroonian director Jean-Marie Téno will make a visit. One of Africa's premiere documentary filmmakers, Téno will show two of his recent films, "The Colonial Misunderstanding," (8:15 p.m., Feb. 7, Cascade Campus) and "Alex's Wedding" (7:30 p.m., Feb. 7, Cascade Campus). He will answer questions about his work and share insights into colonialism, neo-colonialism, and African filmmaking.
Bamako
Téno, who is currently a visiting artist at Amherst College in Massachusetts, is known for his insights into Africa's colonial past and post-colonial present. He was born in 1954 in Famleng, Cameroon. In 1977, he moved to France – where he still lives – and studied audiovisual communication, receiving a master's degree from the University of Valenciennes. After working in journalism for a time, he managed to interview director Ousmane Sembène. The veteran director, impressed by Téno's questions, asked him why he was not making films himself. Téno soon took the director's advice to heart and began making short documentaries and fiction shorts.
This year's event brings to Portland more than 20 award-winning African films from every region of the continent. Films will be shown on Friday and Saturday evenings with those films repeated in Thursday afternoon matinees.
There will be documentary films on Thursday evenings and on four Saturday afternoons, including a Saturday afternoon Family Film Day program. Each evening screening will be followed by a discussion session led by individuals from the area shown in that evening's film or by individuals with expert knowledge of the region.
For a complete schedule, visit the official Web site: www.africanfilmfestival.org