Popenguine, Dec 22 (APS) – Populations of Popenguine, cultural actors, local elected officials and officials paid vibrant tribute on Saturday to the Senegalese filmmaker Moussa Sène Absa, on the occasion of the first cultural festival of Popenguine (Mbour, West ), for his commitment to the service of cinema and culture, noted the APS.
Since Friday, Popenguine Ndayane has hosted a three-day cultural festival, initiated by the municipality of the eponymous commune.
''Moussa Sène is a cultural actor and filmmaker known throughout the world. It is essential, especially in the field of cinema. This is why we decided to pay tribute to him for his knowledge, for this first edition of the Popenguine Ndayane cultural festival,'' said Mamadou Mansour Thiandoum, the mayor of Popenguine Ndayane.
Mr. Thiandoum believes that this tribute paid to Moussa Sène Absa, ''is an opportunity to thank him for his involvement and his proximity to the populations of the commune who welcomed and adopted him''.
Béne Diogoye Bèye, former cultural journalist at the Senegalese Press Agency (APS) said he was proud of the tribute paid to a filmmaker of the caliber of Moussa Sène Absa.
''Moussa deserves it, because he spread the word about Senegalese culture beyond our borders and all over the world,'' he testified.
Renowned filmmaker, Moussa Sène Absa began his art in theater. He first worked as an actor on stage, before moving towards directing in the theater. He wrote the play ''The Legend of Ruba'', which became his first work as a director.
Actor in the feature films “Paris XY” and “Peignoir Noir”, respectively directed by Zeka Laplaine and Nicole Ribowski, the filmmaker then took his first steps as a director with his short film “Le Prix du Mensonge”, in 1988. A film which tells the story of two African brothers who live in the Paris region (France), with rather different standards of living and obstacles.
He won the prize for best photography at Fespaco in 1997, two years after the release of this work. Also in 2003, the feature film “Madame Brouette” was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
For Maguèye Kassé, critical professor of arts, cinema and plastic arts, ''this tribute is a pretext to launch the question of culture at the decentralized level''.
Present at the tribute ceremony, Bakary Sarr, Secretary of State for Culture, Creative Industries and Historical Heritage, noted that '' the work of Moussa Sène Absa and his integration into Popenguine Ndayane contributes to ensuring that the community appropriates the powerful instrument it has to build citizen awareness, but also to develop territories.
''The tribute to Moussa Sène Absa Popenguine can be a very attractive center both for tourism and culture, but also to bring together in the cultural framework, many resources of our territory which are the ethnic groups'', explained again Bakary Sarr, emphasizing that ''these initiatives contribute to relaunching the question of cinema and all its supports''.
The official also reassured that his department is part of this framework, by “ensuring that populations can find themselves in the new Vision Senegal 2050 reference framework and its perspectives”.
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