Sembene across Africa: A celebration across the continent in 28 countries
| When: | Saturday, 09 June 2018 - Sunday, 10 June 2018 |
| Where: | Off campus Soweto Theatre, cnr. Bolani Rd and Bolani Link, Jabulani (9 June 2018); Market Theatre Photo Workshop Auditorium, 138 Lillian Ngoyi Street, Newtown ( 10 June 2018) |
| Start time: | 14:30 |
| Enquiries: | 010 446-1462 (Soweto Theatre) and windybrow@markettheatre.co.za (Market Theatre Photo Workshop Auditorium) |
| RSVP: | 010 446-1462 (Soweto Theatre) and windybrow@markettheatre.co.za (Market Theatre Photo Workshop Auditorium) |
The Galle Ceddo Projects in association with the Sembene Estate, the Wits School of Arts Film & TV Division and others will host this film screening.
Ousmane Sembene, son of a Senegalese fisherman, was kicked out of school. After working as a manual labourer for 15 years, Sembene became a novelist and filmmaker. Sembene dedicated his every moment to galvanizing and inspiring people, creating visionary, profound and subversive stories.
Sembene’s classic 1975 XALA, is one of the great works of political cinema, plus the award-winning documentary SEMBENE!. Sembene’s masterful satire follows a group of African leaders who pledge a new, equitable society, and then immediately follow the path of the money-grabbing, corrupt French businessmen who fleeced the country for decades. One of the African leaders celebrates his growing bank account with an elaborate wedding for his third wife (a teenager) but on the day of the wedding finds he's been hit with a curse, or xala, rendering him impotent. His path towards discovering the source of the curse echoes the nation’s arc of corruption and, perhaps someday, redemption.
SEMBENE! tells the unbelievable true story of the self-taught “father of African cinema,” who fought enormous odds to return African stories to Africa. SEMBENE! uses rare archival footage and more than 100 hours of exclusive materials to craft a true-life epic, as an ordinary man transforms himself into a fearless spokesperson for the marginalised.
This film screening is hosted by Galle Ceddo Projects in association with the Sembene Estate, the Wits School of Arts Film & TV Division, the Wits History Workshop and Reframing Africa.
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