- Title: Senegal works to restore cinema halls and revive ailing film industry.
- Date: 23rd March 2017
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) CINEKAP DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER OF GOMIS' WINNING FILM "FELICITE", OUMAR SALL, SAYING: "We need to go back to the education of images, even at schools, and go back to the basics. But we should come back to it because we cannot discuss cinema without cinemas. You need movie theatres. It's almost an obligation. I am sure that today, Senegalese people will go."
- Embargoed: 6th April 2017 17:52
- Keywords: Senegal film cinema Fespaco
- Location: DAKAR AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, SENEGAL/ OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- City: DAKAR AND UNKNOWN LOCATION, SENEGAL/ OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- Country: Senegal
- Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003696K3FB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: ===PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS ORIGINALLY 4:3 MATERIAL===
The El mansour cinema hall in Senegal's capital Dakar once represented a symbol of vibrant Senegalese film. But for more than a decade, like many other cinemas halls in the country, El mansour remains abandoned, covered in debris.
Despite producing some of the most renowned filmmakers on the continent such as Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Diop Mambetty, Senegalese cinema has been suffering from decades of decline.
Experts say there are only a handful of cinemas left across the country now, and blame new technology as well as lack of funding and resources for the ailing film industry.
Filmmakers also say lack of local production houses also points to a wider crisis in the film industry, as local films are almost always partly financed abroad, which is the case for French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis' award-winning 2017 film "Felicite."
Gomis took home the top prize, the golden stallion of Yennenga, at this year's Pan-african Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), the continent's oldest film festival.
Despite Senegal having six films competing at this year's FESPACO, Senegalese filmmakers lament on missed opportunity for local audiences to see home grown movies, due to lack of cinemas.
"We need to go back to the education of images, even at schools, and go back to the basics. But we should come back to it because we cannot discuss cinema without cinemas. You need movie theatres. It's almost an obligation. I am sure that today, Senegalese people will go," said Oumar Sall, director of local production company Cinekap, who also co-produced "Felicite.
He also added that technology switching to film digitization may also have hurt cinemas, but that the attention other award-wining Senegalese films in the last five years, are attracting, such as "Tey," and Moussa Toure's "La Pirogue" was helping re-launch the industry.
Digital arts schools such as Sup'Imax are some of the initiatives that have been introduced by film makers to help revive Senegal's film industry, offering students formal training and exposing them to digital technology.
Sup'Imax, Dakar's international IT academy, is one of the institutes of higher learning where students can take classes in film making and production.
"There are films that were made in Senegal that we have never seen, so it would be nice if we had cinemas that offered us those kind of movies to educate the youth a little bit about what is being made here. So it's a shame to have a director in your own country and not know who he is. It's only in cases where the person is well-known internationally that we would hear about them, so it's a pity," said one student, Amsatou.
Despite Senegal's films having a strong presence in some of the world's best film festivals, filmmaker and professor Christian Thiam says the local industry cannot be restored unless cinemas can showcase local productions.
"Festivals are all well, but we don't make films for festivals. We make films for the general public and we want them to have access to it. So you know, yes, we need movie theatres where they'll show our films, we need our TVs to play their role and actually show the films," said Thiam.
At the city's main commercial cinema, construction of three viewing rooms is currently underway, and organizers say they will be able to seat some 700 people and even project 3D films.
In the meantime, an outdoor cinema made of an inflatable dome has been built to accommodate movie goers.
When it opened a little over a year ago, it attracted a full house with its very first screening -- 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'.
But now they are only getting by because of the high cost of purchasing film viewing rights, said Moustapha Diop, manager of the logistics and events company that runs the outdoor theatre.
Senegal culture and communications ministry's cinematography department head, Hugues Diaz, said the government is working on renovating the golden-era cinema houses to make them suitable for today's audiences and enable them offer a more diverse list of films - both African and foreign films.
"We plan to finance private operators to renovate these cinema halls and make them suitable because the older cinemas are no longer what the people want today, because they were very big. So today, we have to make then convenient, as it's done around the world -- halls with 200-300 seats, with three or four of them that can offer a diverse program," Diaz said.
Diaz added that the government had also found many national investors to finance new cinemas called complexes that will feature several smaller cinemas using newer digital technologies. Organisers hope to see them up and running by international standards within the next two to three years. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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