Poster Gallery: Coming Attractions

Mary K. Huelsbeck

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Poster GalleryComing Attractions
Mary K. Huelsbeck

This issue of Black Camera features posters collected by the Black Film Center/Archive's director, Michael T.Martin, at the 2009 FESPACO Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The films are all dramas that center around the themes of religion, self-discovery, family, and community.

The poster on the cover of this issue is for the film Les feux de Mansaré (2009) by Senegalese filmmaker Mansour Sora Wade. The film tells the tale of a love triangle and the clash of religions. Three of the films, Buud Yam (1997) by Gaston Kaboré of Burkina Faso, Kabala (2002) by Assane Kouyaté of Mali, and Faro, la reine des eaux (2007) by Salif Traoré of Mali, focus on young men who must confront superstitious villagers and gain their acceptance despite being considered outcasts. Fantan fanga (2009), by Ladji Diakite and Adama Drabo of Mali, also examines superstition, witchcraft, and acceptance after an albino villager is killed and dismembered. Power (also known as The Throne), made in 1998 by Ladi Ladebo of Nigeria, looks at the quest for a prince's crown and its accompanying power. The short film Nous filles d'Abel (2006), by Mehdi Husain, tells the story of two sisters in Burkina Faso: one with a bright future and the other struggling to make ends meet. All that is known about the film Vulane (1985) is that it was made in South Africa by Constantia Films and that the dialogue is spoken in the Zulu and Xhosa languages.

The poster and lobby card collection of the Black Film Center/Archive comprises over seven hundred posters and lobby cards dating from 1915 to the present. Highlights of the collection include posters and lobby cards for all-black-cast films produced by Richard Norman in the 1920s, blaxploitation films from the 1960s and 1970s, and nearly three hundred African movie posters, constituting the largest and most diverse collection of African movie posters in the United States. The collection is open to faculty, students, and the general public for educational purposes. Each issue of Black Camera will highlight posters and lobby cards from the collection focusing on specific films, actors, or geographic areas of the African diaspora. [End Page 103]