++++ By Cheikh Gawane Diop ++++
Saint-Louis, May 4 (APS) – Great figure of documentary cinema, Rosine Mbakam honored with “Sargal’docs 2024”, Saturday, in Saint-Louis during the closing of the 15th edition of the Saint-Louis international documentary festival (StLouis’docs) draws its inspiration mainly from his native Cameroon. This is why, as she says, her cinema often highlights close people or even her family.
Originally from Cameroon, the director and producer has made herself comfortable in the cinematographic world.
”My first Source of inspiration is Cameroon. My desire for cinema was born there, where I grew up and studied. I lived there for 27 years. These words from the filmmaker made in an interview with the APS are strong and very significant.
She is currently staying in Saint-Louis (north) as part of the 15e edition of the international documentary film festival ”Stlouis’docs”, which opened on April 30 and ended on Saturday.
Cameroon, ”my Source of inspiration”
”I feel this desire to tell stories and represent Cameroon and Africa. I always have this desire to show what I see, the way of life in my family, the way of life of people in Cameroon and how I see people position themselves,” she said, alluding to to his recent film ´´Mambar Pierrette´´ released in 2023.
A cinema teacher at the University of Ghent, Belgium, Rosine is adept at preserving cultural heritage, identity and roots.
´´We must trust our heritage as griots, tales and narration and not believe that narrative forms come from elsewhere. We have our own narrative forms,” she says.
According to her, the renewal of cinema can come from Africa, from our countries and from these narrative forms.
Cinema to deconstruct the relics of colonization
In her opinion, she who navigates between two worlds, making cinema is also deconstructing the relics of colonization.
”Because colonization used cinema to implant certain preconceived ideas in our imaginations. Making cinema also means deconstructing these remains of colonization in me and in Cameroonian society,” assures this mother of two children.
According to her, it is cinema that will help deconstruct the remains of colonization in our countries.
Found in a Saint-Louis hotel, relaxed in a beautiful dress, Rosine fully assumes her situation as a woman in the cinematographic world.
´´For me, cinema is an art of transformation. I am becoming a woman more seasoned by my history, more seasoned by my situation as a woman and more seasoned by the force that cinema represents,” she confides.
For this 47-year-old Cameroonian filmmaker, life is not a linear trajectory. It is strewn with difficulties that we must learn to overcome.
Today, her view of African cinema is positive. ”I find that with the accessibility of material today, there are young people who want to express themselves,” she remarks.
”Safi Faye freed me”
For the 15th edition of Stlouis’docs, it is safe to say that Rosine is the “guest star”. As proof, his film ”Mambar Pierrette” was screened last Tuesday at the opening of the festival. An honor for the filmmaker.
”I am very honored that my work is celebrated in a country which has a cinematographic heritage which has nourished me a lot, bequeathed to me by Sembène Ousmane, Djibril Diop etc. Safi Faye [réalisatrice, anthropologue, ethnologue et féministe sénégalaise] liberated me in my way of seeing cinema, gave me a lot of courage to go further,” Rosine admits.
To reward her valuable contribution to documentary creation, the ”Sargal’docs 2024” put her in the spotlight. And a prize was awarded to him on Saturday by the Directorate of Cinematography of Senegal.
CGD/AMD/ABB
