The association

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Open Air screenings. Credits : Meyer - Tendance Floue for itinerant digital cinema

WHAT FOR?

More and more demand for an ever declining offer

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Groups sitting watching television.
Credits : Marion Stalens
Today it is easier to see an African film in Europe than on African screens.
Even though cinemas are an absolute necessity in terms of satisfying the very real public demand for African films, they are still closing down one by one despite growing public passion for the visual arts. It is indeed noticeable that sessions of shared public TV watching, sales of under the counter videos and video club deals are continuing to increase. This parallel market is short circuiting distribution networks.
The emblematic cinemas of African capital cities have either been destroyed or have closed down : Le Paris in Dakar (Senegal), Les studios in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) or very recently, l'Abbia in Yaoudé (Cameroon). Senegal, The Ivory Coast and Cameroon have thus joined the long list of countries deprived of cinemas.

 

 

WHAT IS CINEMA ?


Abderrahmane Sissako.
Credits : Marion Stalens
Nothing can replace the experience of seeing a film in an actual cinema and of being in a group to share the experience. In the darkness everyone sits together to share in emotion, an experience which has a social function. We also go to the cinema to gain a deeper understanding of oneself because we all need to know ourselves. A population without cinema is like a person without a mirror. It is reassuring and constructive to be afraid or to dream together.

Talking about the films, some films treat the viewer like an object, whereas others consider the viewer as subject. The more we aware we are, the more likely we are to consume that which encourages and develops our own autonomy. The cinemas programme will reflect the desire to defend films d’auteur and the best of popular film.

It would be impossible to imagine a singer without concert hall, a painter without a place to exhibit, a writer without a book shop, how can we possibly imagine a film director without cinema? Film directors make films so that they are seen, by everyone and especially by their fellow-citizens.

 

HOW ?

Looking to digital: an economic and innovative model for Africa

Faced with problems of profitability, cinemas equipped with 35mm technologies which require complex and costly transportation of reels, the Association of the Cinémas pour l’Afrique is counting on all the advantages of new digital technologies. Thanks to the digitalization of cinema, it is now possible to distribute film beyond borders and around countries without any geographical limits. This technology will provide a solution for reducing operating costs and will also allow for films to come out at the same time as in other countries.

 

FIRST PROJECT


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Current state of the Soudan Ciné in Bamako (Mali). @atelier d'architecture Lalo

Pilot project: Soudan Ciné in Bamako

In a country where the artistic quality of many directors has already received wide-spread recognition, only a few screens are still in operation. The Soudan Ciné has been closed for 14 years and was formerly a major location for cinema distribution in Western Africa. The Association’s first target is to renovate and re-open the cinema in the heart of the town and the country

The launch of Soudain Ciné will be a pilot project which aims to set an example to help re-open places dedicated to cinemas in the world and in the main African capital cities.

 

Creation of the Association


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Abderrahmane Sissako and Juliette Binoche at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. Credits : DR

 

Presented in preview at the 40th edition Fespaco 2009 (festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) then at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, the ‘Cinemas for Africa’ Association, created at the initiative of the Mauritian film maker Abderrahmane Sissako (En attendant le bonheur, La Vie sur terre, Bamako) and of which Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche is Vice-President, launched a subscription campaign amongst public and private contributors. The collection of funds, in the form of a symbolic sale of cinema seats, will contribute to the renovation of the Soudan Ciné in Bamako (Mali).