Thierno Souleymane Diallo, young actor and director of Guinean documentary cinema, for his first time, presents his film “Au Cimetière de la pellicle” in documentary feature competition at the 28th edition of the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). This film brings out Mouramani, a Guinean film shot in 1953, which Souleymane Diallo describes as “the first film from black French-speaking Africa”, from the rubble of cinema by rewriting the history of Guinean cinema. The challenge is clear; win a trophy on the evening of FESPACO. Moreover, the young director aims to assert the identity of Guinean cinema in front of the world of the 7th art. Interview !
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Burkina 24: What does the 28 representth edition of FESPACO for Guinea?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo : This edition represents, if you will, a symbolic act. We represent Guinea with films. Because we haven’t been to FESPACO for a long time. Even if we come; it’s generally with films by directors who come from the diaspora, Guineans who live in France and make films in Guinea, who send them to compete at FESPACO.
SO, we can say that this is the first in almost two decades that Guinea has had a film at FESPACO with a director who lives in the country, who also makes his films in the country. So it’s a symbolic act which is very strong for us this time to be there at FESPACO.
Burkina 24: What are Guinea’s ambitions in coming to this 28th FESPACO edition?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo : We didn’t come to make up the numbers because already, our participation this year, we are still bringing a film “In the cemetery of film” which, if you like, talks about the first film from black French-speaking Africa made in 1953 in Paris by Mamadou Touré.
Everyone has heard of it, no one has ever seen it. So we are bringing this film back, but also to say what Guinea was like with its cinema in the 1960s. It must be said, in 1968, Guinea set up a cinematographic development laboratory, which unfortunately did not operated for political reasons.
But it is proof that Guinea was avant-garde on what can be cinema in the country but also cinema in the sub-region and on the African continent. So, we are bringing this film back to FESPACO this year not only to present it to the public of FESPACO and Africa but also to rewrite or tell the history of African cinemas which have always been told in a certain way.
Burkina 24: How is the Guinean Cinema doing?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo : Guinean cinema is rising from its ashes. You can’t say he’s doing well because he was buried a long time ago. Today, we are in the process of exhuming everything that has been buried to find out what things can be reused and to give a new dynamic to this cinema.
You have young people with a strong ambition to make films, even if the means are not there for the moment. But we have strong hope from this moment when the Minister of Culture is already committed to our side, to lead a fight together so that this cinema can be reborn from its ashes. Nothing is easy. That’s a lot to do. We missed a lot of things. Everything has to be started from scratch.
It’s not going to go as fast as we can imagine or think, but we are sure and certain that with small steps, rolling little by little, we will come back and we will still mark our presence. .
Burkina 24: What does FESPACO represent for Thierno Souleymane Diallo as a director?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo: For me, FESPACO is the African Cup of Nations where Burkina is still the only organizer where it should be congratulated. Because 28th edition at FESPACO is not 28 days. We’ve been here for more than 28 years, we meet at FESPACO; it is the largest African cinema festival on the African continent.
And this is the place to thank the Burkinabè all the same, but also to thank the Burkinabè State; because without a real political will, this FESPACO was going to disappear like so many things have disappeared almost everywhere in Africa.
So for me, being at FESPACO is the greatest honor one can have on the African continent. It’s the only place where we meet as Africans to talk about cinema, African cinema. For me, it’s an unmissable event for all things African cinema.
Burkina 24: What are your impressions of the organization of this edition?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo: I still see a beautiful organization; there may be shortcomings, it is an organization. But you feel the desire, you feel the determination, you feel the work done.
This is also the place to thank the general delegate of FESPACO in the person of Alex Moussa Sawadogo who fights on all fronts; on the fronts of financing, on the fronts of dissemination, on the fronts of training and this is the place to thank him. We need a lot of Alex Moussa Sawadogo on this continent to be able to make a great cinema.
Burkina 24: What is the journey of Thierno Souleymane Diallo?
I studied cinema in Guinea, after that I did a Master 1 in Niamey and a Master 2, that of Senegal. I made two feature films; “A name for my family”, “Difficult to tell”. There, I am on my first documentary feature which is “In the cemetery of the film”.
Burkina 24: What to remember from the film “In the film cemetery”?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo: The project that is there is In the cemetery of the film. It is a character of the director Souleymane, but who is nicknamed Mamlo who goes in search of the first film from black French-speaking Africa made in 1953 in Paris. This film, everyone has heard of it but no one has ever seen it.
Going in search of this film also means taking a detour to this Guinean cinema which was nevertheless avant-garde in the 1960s. So, to see what cinemas have become today, what have become the reels projected in these rooms but also what have become of the filmmakers and what hope today this new generation has in making films… So it’s a film that speaks a bit about the autopsy of Guinean cinema in particular but African cinemas in general.
Burkina 24: Who gave you inspiration in cinema in Africa?
Thierno Souleymane Diallo : What inspired me to embrace cinema; as a youngster, I discovered cinema in a dark room characters with great value, and I never stopped going there. After, I had the possibility of going to study cinema, I went.
My references, me personally, are people like Cheick Fanta Mady Camara from Guinea, Souleymane Cissé from Mali, but also Abderrahmane Sissoko from Mauritania… it’s shared between Mauritania, Senegal and Mali.
Interview by Akim KY
Burkina 24
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