Beatriz Leal, specialist and programmer of African film festivals
The programmer of Afrikaldia, whose V edition will take place from October 28 to November 4 in Vitoria-Gasteiz, explains to us what her work consists of and talks with us about the richness of African cinemas.
What led you to specialize in African cinemas?
It was part of my process at university after watching two films by Abderrahmane Sissako that surprised me greatly on all levels. I was aware that I lacked analytical tools to understand what was happening. They touched on elements of humanity that I didn’t see in other cinemas, and after those films I set out to see as much as possible. Thanks to teachers Alberto Elena and Fernando González I managed to have access to a filmography that was very difficult to access and I ended up specializing in African cinemas.
What does it mean to be a festival programmer?
What we do is search for and watch films throughout the year and select them by going directly to other festivals, through contact with distributors, producers and directors, or through specialized programming and viewing platforms. There is another way to work which is by making an open call for films. The peculiarity of African cinemas has been the over-dimension of academics in African film festivals, which has led to an intellectualization of the programs. The second generation of programmers also put emphasis on the entertainment part. In Afrikaldia, although I select the films with complete creative freedom, the rest of the team also sees them and assesses whether we should include them or not, because they also know the response there may be. Then there are the films that do not participate in the official section, where the cinematographic part is not so important, but responds to other needs, such as generating a debate or being more linked to a community that lives here, for example.
What is the most difficult part of your job?
I don’t know if the most difficult or the most painful: not being able to find the response in the public with a film that you thought was going to have a different reception. The public of each city is completely different and it is not easy to find what they are looking for. I take it very seriously to try to reach as many audiences as possible and to ensure that all the selected films contribute something, that they offer answers to certain anxieties and curiosities. I always try to put myself in the place of the spectator, of the context of the festival and its theme, not to follow my taste as a spectator, which is individual.
You have programmed in many countries, do you take into account the specific context of each festival?
A lot, because these festivals are linked to the population in the diaspora. In the United States the movement marked a lot Black Lives Matter and in Brazil the political element is very important, present especially during Lula’s era. In each place it is different. For example, I am a co-founder of the festival Wallay!whose official section is held at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, which allows for a more cinephile approach than in other places. In Vitoria, outside of the Festival, African cinema is not shown, it is a blank page, but in Barcelona it is and I have to know what is there, who does it, how they do it… Each context forces you to do one thing or another.
What is special about the Afrikaldia festival?
The work with the African population of Vitoria-Gasteiz, who is involved in the organization of the Festival at all levels, and that there is much more African audience than in any other festival I have been to, even those in New York or Brazil. It has nothing to do with any place I know and for me it is the most important thing. Afrikaldia also allows people to get to know the city, the idiosyncrasies of immigration here and the Basque reality, something that does not happen in other festivals. And, on the other hand, the treatment and welcome of the guests, for whom it is very gratifying that they are taken care of, that they speak their languages and that they always have a companion from the African community, who may even be from their country. That is one of its hallmarks and I would like that, although Afrikaldia grows, that it is not abandoned. It is important that there is equality between the human treatment at the Festival and the films shown, because otherwise it would be contradictory. It seems a bit utopian, but it happens and it is important. Now that these things are not so fashionable, I still believe in something like that. Also that there are no hierarchies. Sometimes we are not aware that directors who have just won at Cannes come and are here having a beer and a pintxo with us, but they don’t usually have that treatment either because the approach towards them is usually very hierarchical and here they are not treated that way.
Are there common features in African cinemas or is there much difference between countries and regions?
Ours is the Basque Festival of African Cinemas, always plural, not only for nations, but also on an aesthetic level, for cultural sources and artistic references. There are auteur, experimental, and genre films, so insisting from the West on a reductionism of African cinema shows our vision of not seeing the reality of very diverse cinemas, the result of stimuli, needs, and obsessions of the directors themselves, who are independent creators, as in all places, with very personal and intimate stories or not, but which cannot be homogenized. There are African film festivals that have focused on a type of auteur film with French roots, which have created a fictitious sensation that there is a singular, similar African cinema, with a type of shots, stories and political-ideological proposals that is not the reality of African cinemas.
At what point is cinema on the continent?
It is very difficult to make a generalization. The peculiarity of the most recent proposals is the greater individual push by directors from countries that previously could not make films. Nowadays, with a good idea and few resources you can end up making a film of international reach. It is the example of Damien Hauser with After the Long Rains. Young directors who, with one camera, three ideas and few means, are giving us innovative and interesting proposals. And then, thanks to the fact that there is a lot of interest from the West in proposals from women, directors are having an easier time reaching festivals and platforms that we can access. One of the characteristics of African cinemas is that they have always been very feminist, even films made by men. Women have always been at the center of African cinemas.
What African films would you recommend starting with?
I would recommend Goodbye Julia for the use of genres to transcend mere entertainment and make one reflect on a reality that is currently silenced such as that of Sudan, in addition to the cinematographic quality it has. Because of my relationship with the director and the value it has, I would recommend La vie sur terre, by Abderrahmane Sissako, because it is a declaration of love for cinema and for demonstrating how there is a different cinematographic aesthetic in each African director that we should learn from. Thirdly, recovering one of the pioneers, I would choose Thiaroye field, by Ousmane Sembène, for being a film with global implications ahead of its time, because it allows us to understand the difficulties that many African films had due to the censorship to which they were subjected from the West and to give way to one of the most important universal cinematography, that of Senegalese. we could quote Touki Bouki either Hyèneswhich I find fascinating, but I’m left with Thiaroye field. I would also recommend Med Hondo, Faouzi Bensaïdi and one of the most interesting directors today, Alice Diop, an essential name in African cinemas.
How can we access African cinemas?
Following the circuit of specialized film festivals and exhibitions, which are done with great care and affection in almost all regions of Spain. The interaction with the specialists, the directors themselves, as in Afrikaldia, offers a plus to the experience. And then on platforms, because on the best-known ones it is possible to find films from the continent. The interested public has to do a little more searching work, because the algorithm is not going to offer them African films, they have to go look for them, but now they have somewhere to see them. It is about doing a small study of which directors we specialists recommend to search for films, because, in addition, now there are many films that can be seen openly.
How do you see the future of African cinemas?
They depend on geopolitical stability, how much the diaspora wants to give back to the continent and the interest of each nation in giving artistic-audiovisual production the weight and value it deserves. There are countries where there are now film schools and post-production laboratories. Senegal, for example, has a couple of directors who returned to Africa and who have set up their own studios so as not to go abroad to do the final editing work. This also affects the wealth of the country, but it is not possible without political stability. We must also take into account the future that cinema will have, because today audiovisual consumption continues to grow absolutely, but we do not know where the younger audience’s ability to concentrate for 90 minutes is going to be.
Does it require another type of product and viewer?
And also viewing spaces, where and how it is consumed. In many places in Africa there are no movie theaters and watching from a mobile phone also forces greater use of close-ups and other types of soundscapes, because there will be noise when watching. All of this influences how movies are made. There are some African directors who advocate using noise in the films themselves or not including background music, as in Mambar Pierretebecause it is not the way to live in Africa. African cinemas have something of cinema veritébecause they are echoing the current consumer reality, which is also a political-aesthetic proposal. They are proposals that are increasingly valued by young audiences because they have not had the viewing experience in a movie theater.
