Kigali: Rwanda invited as guest of honor to the 26th edition and fiftieth anniversary of FESPACO
Rwanda was invited as guest of honor to the 26th edition and fiftieth anniversary of the Panafrican Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) which takes place from February 23 to March 02, 2019, Rwanda News Agency Reports.
After Egypt in the Maghreb in
2015 and Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa in 2017, FESPACO has shifted its
spotlight to the Great Lakes Region to highlight an emerging country, the
Republic of Rwanda.
It is Rwanda nicknamed “the country of a
thousand hills” which is therefore a guest of honor for the fiftieth
anniversary of the festival of African cinema that takes place every two years,
odd years, in the capital of Burkina Faso.
This 26th edition of FESPACO whose first edition
was initiated in 1969 will be held under the theme: “Confronting our
memory and forging the future of a pan-African cinema in its essence, its
economy and its diversity”.
On the visual of the edition we will see Mouna
N’diaye, the Senegalese-Burkinabe actress.
The work reflects the
principles of cinema: charm, beauty, dreams. The actress is moving forward to
the future. Africa with the black color, the darkness of movie theaters. But
also the theme, memory and future with all these strips of film that are the
film baggage of Africa.
One of the innovations of this edition is the special
selection for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary: The classics of
African cinemas and the diaspora, the emblematic films of the last 50 years, a
retrospective of the winning films, the restored films of the heritage of the
cinemas in Africa and the diaspora.
For this fiftieth meeting, the African equivalent
of the Cannes Film Festival in France, ninety festival representatives from
around the world are expected, as well as twenty national cinematographic
structures from Africa and the diaspora at MICA (International Cinema and
Audiovisual Market).
For the 26th edition of the biennale of African
cinema, there will also be three hundred media outlets, two thousand five
hundred media professionals: journalists, communicators, critics, photographers.
This edition will bring together three thousand professionals in the film
industry.
Twenty thousand spectators are expected at the
opening ceremony, at the municipal stadium Dr Issoufou-Joseph-Conombo, and five
thousand spectators at the closing ceremony at the Palais des Sports in Ouaga
2000.
Fifteen African ministers in charge of cinema and
audiovisual will be present. With them, ten presidents or directors general of
international and regional institutions (UNESCO, African Union, European Union,
International Organization of the Francophonie, ECOWAS, UEMOA, Council of the
Agreement, etc.).
For Ardiouna SOMA (General Delegate of FESPACO),
fifty years is the golden age that challenges us about our past and our future;
the gains, the failure and the repositioning necessary to better address the
future.