Sacred Places
Lieux Saints
International Showcase
(France , Cameroon, 2009, 70 mins)
In French with English subtitles
35mm
Directed By: Jean-Marie Téno
Producer: Jean-Marie Téno
Screenwriter: Jean-Marie Téno
Cinematographer: Crystel Fournier
Editor: Christiane Bangley
Cast: Nanema Boubakar, Jules Cesar Bamouni, Abbo Idrissa Ouedraogo
Music: Smockey, The Alloy Orchestra
Effortlessly touching on issues of economics, modernization, and cultural identity, Jean-Marie Téno’s latest documentary celebrates community and cinema in equal measure. Challenged by a friend to explore the role film and art play outside of Africa’s limited, insular world of international film festivals, Téno looks to a makeshift theater in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, for answers.
There, on a dusty street in the poor neighborhood of St. Leon, Nanema Boubaker operates Votre Cine Club, screening bootleg DVDs of action and Bollywood films for ten cents a ticket, while outside his friend Jules Cesar promotes the club's offerings while playing a traditional djembe drum. Through the two friends, Téno can easily trace the ongoing evolution of African storytelling, from the oral traditions of the griot to the drums Cesar makes by hand to the flat screen television Boubaker dreams of for his theater. Local films, however, are a rarity, leaving Téno and his fellow African filmmakers wondering how they can reconnect with the traditions and people who inspired them in the first place.
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