Let’s go for Season II of Dakar Series. The festival which brings together the best of the African series in Dakar was launched yesterday at the French Institute in Dakar. To set the pace, the first two episodes of the French series “Dj Mehdi: Made in France” were screened. Par Mame Woury THIOUBOU –
A season II which starts, there are always a lot of expectations. Consolidate what you have learned from the first season and go beyond. At the Dakar Séries festival, we are well aware of the stakes. The launch of the 2024 edition, this Monday at the Théâtre de verdure of the French Institute of Dakar, will have been a record attendance. Especially that of these young actors who embody the future of a genre which, day by day, is being structured and consolidated on the continent. “Africa is full of talent and rich and powerful stories,” notes the Director of Cinematography. For Germain Coly, this festival, which has come to Senegalese soil, will undoubtedly help to highlight this creativity and diversity.
For 5 days, Dakar will be the showcase of the African series, but with a window open to the rest of the world. This is the meaning of this first screening of the French documentary series: Dj Mehdi: Made in France. The first two episodes of this award-winning series at the last Canneseries and the work of a child from the Plateau district marked the start of the event in a beautiful way. Thibault de Longeville grew up in the shadow of the French Cultural Center dreaming of cinema. Years later, distinctions gleaned from the four corners of the world, he returned to Dakar to present this work which he dedicated to his “best friend”. The 6-episode series thus recounts the first moments of French rap that this prodigy, who died too soon, fashioned from nothing, in his room in a housing estate in Colombe. In a totally charged narration that adopts the rhythm of rap, Dakar spectators plunged into the heart of the first beats of French rap, held in the hand by the artist Kerry James, one of the members of the Mafia K’1 Fry (pronounced Mafia Cainfri, Cainfri being the verlan of Africain), a French hip-hop collective originating from Val-de-Marne and founded in 1995 by some notable French rappers such as Popa Project, Manu Key, Kery James, Karlito, the group Untouchable, Rohff and group 113.
More than just entertainment
“Today, series are no longer simple entertainment. They have become vectors of culture, windows on our societies and tools for social transformation,” indicates the Director of Cinematography. These reflections of society have above all succeeded in making available to African audiences, long weaned from big screens, stories that resemble them. “Africa, with its cultural diversity, is full of talents and rich, powerful and unique stories. Our stories are multiple and deserve to be heard, seen and celebrated,” argues Mr. Coly. In this chorus, Dakar has carved out a good place for itself. This is what the minister-counsellor at the French embassy in Dakar, Florian Blazy, notes. The diplomat perceives “a real audiovisual excitement” around the series on the African continent. “This meeting aims to build bridges, to open new creative and economic perspectives commensurate with this proliferation. The issue is essential because the series constitute an extremely powerful cultural object. They are one of the contemporary and certainly the most striking incarnations of the impact of storytelling, whether fiction or documentary, on the human spirit,” continues Mr. Blazy.
5 days of panels and screenings
During these five days, 25 countries from the continent will come together in Dakar. The competing series will be screened each evening, while festival-goers will discuss the issues facing this sector. Several panels, masterclasses, but also exchanges and discussions are on the program before the Pitch session on Saturday, which will put into competition around twenty directors selected from several Labs on the continent and elsewhere. They will pitch their projects in front of a jury of professionals to win the envelope promised by the Cinematography Department which announces a special reward for the best Senegalese series. In total, 7 prizes will be awarded by the competition jury chaired by Angèle Diabang.
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