From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History

From Mati Diop To Alice Diop: Two French Senagalese Female Filmmakers Who Have Made History in Cannes and Venice

First it was Mati Diop, the French-Senegalese filmmaker whose first feature film "Atlantics" made her the first black female director to be in the Official Selection in competition for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix equivalent of the silver prize at the 2019 annual Cannes Film Festival, making her the first black female director to win an award in Cannes' 72-year history. And another French Senegalese filmmaker, Alice Diop with the same surname has just made history as first black female filmmaker to win the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, for her first feature, "Saint Omer" and also the Lion of the Future LUIGI DE LAURENTIIS Venice Award for a debut film at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival in 2022.

Mati Diop was born in Paris on June 22 in 1982 and Alice Diop was born in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France in 1979.

-  By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor, NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series.

The following is from an interview with Alice Diop on the making of "Saint Omer".

What led you to develop it as a narrative feature?

A documentary was never the plan. At the time, I was too busy with research, plus we couldn’t shoot in the courtroom and I would never [make the real participants] reenact the proceedings. Anyway, I wanted to recreate my experience of listening to another woman’s story while interrogating myself, facing my own difficult truths. The narrative had to trace a series of emotional states that can lead to catharsis. It’s like accelerated psychotherapy.  

https://variety.com/2022/film/festivals/venice-alice-diop-saint-omer-1235367521/

The Best Nigerian Female Filmmakers and the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series

The Best Nigerian Female Filmmakers and the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series.

Researching for and profiling the best Nigerian female filmmakers for the third edition of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series have been more tasking than selecting the best Nigerian filmmakers. I started with 10 accomplished Nigerian female filmmakers in Nigeria and the Diaspora and now I have 33 notable ones.

The publication of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series has been totally financed by me and the 10 complimentary copies of the second edition I gave out gratis cost me US$300, because I am the Publisher and Editor. But the international distributors sell a copy from US$40- US$70. The first edition with the young accomplished award winning filmmaker, Kenneth Gyang on the cover sells from US$40 to over US$900 on Amazon. Book traders have made it a collector's item. 

The third edition has more features and photographs, including rare photographs of the great Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe on the location of the making of the film adaptation of two of his novels, "Things Fall Apart" and "No Longer at Ease" as "Bullfrog in the Sun" directed by German filmmaker, Jason Hansjürgen Pohland and produced by Francis Oladele, the "Father of Nigerian Cinema".  Other features include the highest grossing Nollywood movies so far, the world premiere of Femi Odugbemi's "Gidi Blues", one of the best romantic dramas in Nigerian movies; the making of "Lagos in Motion" romantic documentary; profiles of some of the top Nigerian actors and actresses; Sam Zebba's"Fincho" (1957), the first film to be made in colour in Nigeria; Adamu Halilu, the first filmmaker to have made a film in Hausa and his other films; including "Baban Larai" (1954), "It Pays to Care" (1955), "Hausa Village" (1958), "Mama Learn a Lesson" (1963), "Child bride" (1971) and "Shehu Umar" (1979); 2019 Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) and 2019 Nigerian International Film Summit (NIFS).

This is going to be a highly priced collector's item and if book traders sell a copy for more than US$1000, I will not be surprised.

Publishing such an important publication on contemporary art of filmmaking in a society where the majority of the people are intellectually challenged has been a herculean task, because many of the Nigerian filmmakers in Nigeria don't even know the importance and significance of the literature of motion picture and the appreciation of literary culture. Philistinism is widespread among majority of people in Nigeria. But I have to continue documenting and publishing the history of Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry for the benefit of Nigeria and the rest of the world.

- EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,

https://amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima…