OUSMANE SEMBÈNE: THE FATHER OF AFRICAN CINEMA

On the occasion of Black History Month, IFI presents a retrospective of the work of Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, a seminal figure often referred to as the father of African cinema. Sembène, who died in 2007 at the age of 84, was self-taught, and worked as a bricklayer, a soldier, and a dock worker in Marseille before he began to write, and then direct, his essential subject being the struggle for freedom and dignity of his people. This retrospective, featuring a number of restored films, spans from the ‘60s, when many African nations gained independence, to his final film, Moolaadé, made in the years before his death.