Dieudo Hamadi, selected at Berlin and Cannes, and Hassen Ferhani, award-winner at Locarno, are not just the two African documentarists now recognised by the “major” Western festivals. They are also spearheading a new wave of filmmaking that offers Africa the mirror of its own image and upends representations. This burgeoning documentary Africa, stretching from the Maghreb to South Africa, speaking French, English, Portuguese or Arabic, is the welcome guest of this year’s Cinéma du réel
The question of imaginaries, differing gazes, the challenge of representation, as well as the construction of unique ways-of-doing and an ecology specific to African film production will, we hope, be core to the discussions inspired by this panorama of contemporary African documentary cinema.