From Timbuktu to Oumou

Posted on | May 14, 2009 | No Comments

Of course I managed to miss most of the 19th edition of the African Film Festival in Milano this year. I had only planned on picking up a copy of the catalogue and heading off when I found myself transfixed in front of a projection on a wall:

On arriving at the flat, and without knowing why, I found myself watching these videos over and over:

In all three videos graceful, smiling men and women. And yet they gave rise to some other association. Something beautiful and earie and silent and loud all at the same time. Something beyond classifaction, a residual memory from another time and life, someone else´s life… It was after coming across film-maker Ousmane Sembene´s “Black Girl” weeks after the show that I realised it has someting to do with the frame of reference…
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…in the artistry of master craftswoman and social activist Oumou Sy .

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