Selected English Translations and List of Participants

Figure 1.

FESPACO 2017 Poster

Colloquium of the 25th FESPACO: Training Cinema and Audiovisual Trades

February 28—March 1, 2017

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

African cinema and other audiovisual media are facing serious obstacles regarding the organization, constitution, legislation, regulations, financing, production, distribution, and broadcasting of subject matter, culture, as well as training.

Training professionals in filmmaking is very difficult to implement. Numerous colloquia held across the African continent have attempted to address this issue through strategies and action plans. One might ask: "Why should we hold another colloquium in Ouagadougou?"

The question of training affects professionals, audiences, media, critics, decision-makers, and politics. Absent support mechanisms for production, the lack of strong and effective policy for training in cinema crafts, as well as inadequate infrastructures, there is difficulty in meeting the expectations of African audiences eager to see stories about their countries in works of documentary, animation and narrative fiction. It is evident that only by strong, continent-wide, collaborative action (within both the private and public sectors) will it become possible to develop and implement effective strategies to galvanize anew these areas of training and production.

At the 2009 international colloquium "Culture and Creation: Factors of Development," held in Brussels, a very relevant recommendation was made: "professional training should be available in order to provide human resources." Following such a recommendation would energize film production and marketing at local and international levels.

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We cannot address the theme of the 25th edition of FESPACO without calling upon the opinions and concerns of students and young professionals in the cinema and audiovisual sectors. It is essential that we give them the opportunity to participate in and contribute to these debates, and that we listen to and understand their expectations and aspirations.

The main goal of film and audiovisual teaching, then, is to train young professionals to and enable them to create original works rooted in their own respective cultures, while providing the needs and requirements for the media industries they serve.

We must keep in mind that many African youth are dislocated from their own culture and historical and cultural heritage as a result of the media that misrepresents the real world and the lifestyles that comprise it. A peoples' destiny depends on their capacity to represent themselves and to experience reality and the social world through their own eyes—consciously and subconsciously. Indeed, in today's world, one who does not see through their own eyes does not exist; such a handicap makes it ever more difficult for Africans to recover and define their existence. African youth lack heroines and heroes, role models with whom they can identify and who can stimulate their quest for identity and self-fulfillment. This challenge is an imperative.

As such, and in concrete and pragmatic terms, this colloquium will endeavor to approach these issues. The varied backgrounds and views of the guest speakers will enable participants to explore these issues and share ideas for the implementation of solutions.

Figure 2.

Gaston Kaboré speaks with the media at FESPACO 2017

Lastly, we hope that this colloquium "Training Cinema and Audiovisual Trades" will, by its very deliberation, yield a manifesto and plan to address and navigate the decade ahead.

Gaston Kaboré

Colloquium Coordinator

FESPACO 2017: The Colloquium Whose Theme Gave Birth to the Manifesto, Ougagadougou

March 1, 2017

Alain Didier Compaore

A product of the 2017 FESPACO, The Ouagadougou Manifesto, made numerous recommendations for the development of the 7^th art in Africa.

It proposes that throughout Africa, there is the provision of diverse levels of training opportunities for all current and future job holders in the sectors of film, audiovisual, and interactive medias. This should be carried out in order to equip young professionals with the knowledge and tools to produce original works that reflecting a vision of Africa that is confident of its own future and that desires to take its rightful place among the other nations of this world. The colloquium also calls for a coherent...