Manthia Diawara
2021Sembène: The Making of African Cinema
Manthia Diawara, Thiong'o Ngugi-wa
Ousmane Sembène
Senegalese documentary about the country's most famous film-maker - Ousmane Sembène. The groundbreaking director explains his philosophy, politics and hopes for the future of African cinema.
Sembène: The Making of African Cinema
An Opera of the World
Manthia Diawara
Alexander Kluge, Fatou Diome
In An Opera of the World, Malian scholar and filmmaker Manthia Diawara reflects upon the refugee crisis and the relationship between Europe and Africa. The film revolves around a 2008 performance of Bintou Were, a Sahel Opera, by Zé Manel Fortes with a libretto by Koulsy Lamko, in Bamako, around which Diawara builds a story about migration, interweaving interviews with documentary and archival footage. In the course of the film, one crosses into the world of opera from the tradition of sung wisdoms and sentiments, which has characterized West African culture for centuries. If opera is often understood as an über-European art form—the Gesamtkunstwerk invoked by Richard Wagner—Diawara chooses to meditate on its movement or migration as opposed to its expansion or totality. What happens when opera moves south, from Europe to Africa, just as so many people from that continent are moving north, in search of better lives?
An Opera of the World
