Comments on: Film: No Africans at Cannes. In the backroom, yeh.

By: Goodbye Solo gets the love « Africa is a Country

Goodbye Solo gets the love « Africa is a Country — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:47:15 +0000

[...] news: Haile Gerima’s “Teza” won the best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. Tell that to Cannes. Rub it [...]

By: Cannes ‘is like a nightclub singer’ and war porn « Africa is a Country

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:19:14 +0000

[...] 27, 2008 · No Comments The Cannes Film Festival is now over. I had earlier noted that no African film had made the cut for the official (or main) program, but were relegated to a [...]

By: Mwangi - the Displaced African

Mwangi - the Displaced African — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:25:59 +0000

As I posted on Global Voices Online:

Speaking as an ex-film student I can give my take on why that is:
1) The arts are not highly valued in Africa and as such a lot of the bright minds forego film school in favour of white collar positions.
2) There are no societal incentives to go into film which results in the same consequence as number 1.
3) I don’t know about other countries but in Kenya, the quality of the equipment is very low resulting in a poor quality product
As far as I can tell these are among the primary reasons that a lot of sub-saharan Africa probably didn’t even make enough movies to submit.
As for why there were no Nollywood films…go figure….forget them anyway, let’s make Lagos our arts capital

By: Global Voices Online » Africa: Cannes International Film Festival

Global Voices Online » Africa: Cannes International Film Festival — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:41:15 +0000

[...] Leo Africanus wonders why there are not African films at the Cannes International Film Festival: “I may be missing something, but no African film or film with an African theme (including North Africa) made the official cut.” Posted by Ndesanjo Macha Share This [...]