Enlarge imageBy James Knight and Katrina Manson
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - "We’ll be back," vowed American actor Danny Glover as he prepared to jet out of Africa’s top film festival.
That pledge, made on behalf of the powerful African-American film lobby, could be just what Africa’s cash-strapped film industry needs as it strives to sell its films to global audiences and get funds to make more.
There can be little doubt that closer ties between the African-American movie community and Africa could increase output and commercial appeal.
Glover, star of the "Lethal Weapon" films, was in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou last week to judge films from the continent’s top directors during the Fespaco film festival.
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His presence gave the festival, which transforms dusty Ouagadougou into the Cannes of Africa for a week every two years, a spark of international glamour, and also heralded what many hope will be greater U.S.-Africa cooperation in film.
"There is no awareness of Fespaco in America," said Cassie Sade Turnipseed, managing director for the Paul Robeson Award, given to the best film from the African diaspora at Fespaco.
"Ours is a PR campaign," she said.
But the prospect of beefed-up backing from the cradle of movie-making is not a panacea.
African directors at Fespaco had cautionary tales of foreign cash with conditions affecting the films they made, how they made them and who they hired.
The winner of Fespaco’s top prize, South African director Zola Maseko, bowed reluctantly to pressure from his U.S. financial backers to cast an American actor, Taye Diggs, as the lead in his film "Drum."
"Until we are able to fund and nurture our own cinema, we are going to have to do without the luxury of telling our own stories with our own people," Maseko said.
WORKING TOGETHER
For Souheil Benbarka, the Moroccan director who headed the Fespaco jury, the ends justify the means when it comes to money.
"Why say ’No’ if America is giving money to make films?" he said. "Zola is a very talented director. Now he won’t need to have money from America anymore."
For others not so fortunate, Glover is leading the Hollywood charge.
He spent only a few days in Ouagadougou but still managed to snap up the rights to the novel "God’s Bits of Wood" by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene.
The story is slated for production by Glover’s new movie company, Louverture Films, created to focus on films of historical relevance with social messages.
"God’s Bits of Wood" fits the bill as the story of a 1947 strike on the Senegal-Niger railway that ignited the independence movement in West Africa.
While in Ouagadougou, Glover also bestowed the new Youth Watch Award for young directors of African-American heritage to a star-struck film maker at a ceremony at the U.S. cultural centre.
This kind of tribute can help secure Fespaco’s place on the international cinema circuit, marking it as a festival with global appeal.
Turnipseed’s involvement with Fespaco began in 2003, when only two American films were submitted for the Robeson award. She approached the festival director, said he had a problem, and was appointed Fespaco representative in the United States.
"What we need is full financial support from Hollywood to support independent film makers who would like to travel to Africa and show their films," she said.
As well as putting Africa on the movie circuit, trans-Atlantic cooperation could spur joint projects, ploughing cash into African films.
TALKING THE TALK
Independent African-American producer Kevin Arkadie, who is filming a documentary about Fespaco, was among many who sealed deals at this year’s festival.
He announced a forthcoming feature film collaboration with Burkinabe director and one-time Fespaco winner Gaston Kabore, and said he hoped to draw U.S. acting talent to the project.
"I’m really aware of the bottom line in the film business," he said. "If you get smart about how to make a film and get stories, there’s a market for African films."
Fespaco itself signalled a shift to a more audience-friendly stance this year by awarding the top prize to Maseko’s "Drum" -- a stylish film about an anti-apartheid campaigning journalist in 1950s Johannesburg.
Another problem for Fespaco and African films in general as they seek to go global, is language.
"The largest impediment to Hollywood is that this is seen as a French-language festival," said Arkadie. "If that changes ... Hollywood would be more receptive to coming here."
Change is already afoot. This year, South African films won a clutch of awards, including the top prize, proving that non-French films could also thrive at Fespaco.
For South African director Teddy Mattera, whose "Max and Mona" won an award for remarkable film making, the festival provided a chance to join a wider community.
"I think the biggest prize for me was to come here, to move out of the isolation in South Africa and to share with other Africans what we’re all about," he said.
