Moussa Sene Absa is a Senegalese filmmaker, artist and songwriter. What is your first film memory? It happened during the school holidays the year I turned ten in 1968. As a reward for my good grades my uncle took me to the cinema to watch The Lion from Saint Marc. At one point when a lion looks straight into the camera I was terrified and tried to run away, but my uncle grabbed me and said “It’s just a film.” The scene haunted me for days. Why did you decide to become a filmmaker? I fell in love with movies as a teenager, but before that, when I was ten, I used to make Chinese shadow films at our house in Tableau Ferraille. Kids would pay me to tell them stories, which I had read in comic books or seen on film, like 'Blek' and 'Zembla.' Story telling is my way to make the world a better place, to dream and allow others to do the same. I’m a Griot and a storyteller, who grew up in a family of musicians and singers. I started in theatre before turning to film. I was fascinated by both art forms and I’ve always considered the stage to be the best storytelling platform. Film is the perfect tool to tap into other realities in order to make sense of the world, and to portray people and their stories. I became a filmmaker to tell both great and decadent stories, and to make people cry and laugh out of fear and joy. Which film do you wish you had made? There are many films that made a huge impression on me and that I wish I had made, like Once upon a time in America, Rome, open City, Breathless, Hyenas, The little girl who sold the sun and In the mood for love. But if I had indeed made them they would be different as they would have reflected my personality and culture in terms of music, costumes, casting etc. Name one of the films on your top-5 list and the reason why it is there. In its simplicity and the way the story is told, The little girl who sold the sun is the most accomplished film, which talks about life and the future. It’s such a pure and humanist story, and without ever becoming sentimental, it portrays the protagonist – a young girl – as a hero. Ask yourself any question you think I should have asked and answer it. 'Where is African cinema heading, and what are you working on now?' Africans have made films for half a century, and the continent has produced many great filmmakers, who made films rooted in Africa while also reflecting a universal vision, However, during the last couple years, our film language has become increasingly uniform, and with a structure that originates from the West: “Introduction and development followed by conclusion”. Africans usually begin with the end, saying, “He is dead” and then trace the life of the dead person and the people concerned. This storytelling structure is hardly applied on our films. I’m hoping that our filmmakers embark on a search for our identity and our cultures. You could easily think that some Africans films were made by British, Germans or Americans, with a gaze that is truly problematic. At the moment I’m working on a project called Sangomaar, which explores how we adapt to our turbulent world. According to Senegalese tradition, Sangomaar is where the sea meets the river and where the Gods gather to discuss mankind and suggest solutions to our problems, as well as scolding or rewarding us. It’s the place where our destinies are formed. 'Sangomaar' is the second film in a trilogy about black people that starts with my film 'Yoolé' (The Sacrifice). I’m applying the principles of Kurukan Fuga (the ancient Malian constitution) to judge whether we as human beings are moving forward or backwards. I ask questions about where we come from, how we are living our lives, and alternative ways of living and thinking. I also explore the painful moments of our rich and poor continent. Africa is indeed a place of contrast and paradoxes. * The ‘5 Questions for a Filmmaker …’ series is archived here.

Taghreed Elsanhouri directed the first Sudanese film to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, "All about Darfur," in 2005. That same year the film also won the Chairperson’s Prize at the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF). Her other credits include 'Sudanna al Habib' (2012) and 'Mother Unknown' (2009). This interview is the second in a series. Archived here. What is your first film memory? My first film memory is the first film I saw on the big screen. It was an Arabic film called Laylat Alqabt Ala Fatima (The Night Fatima was Arrested), based on a novella by Egyptian journalist and writer, Sakina Fu’ad. She was part of a group of women who wrote about the role of women in a changing society. Why did you decide to become a filmmaker? At one point in my life, when I was still working in broadcasting, I suffered from a stint of writer’s block, which made me feel like The Little Mermaid. I felt as if I had lost my voice--that it had been sold or stolen somewhere along the way. Making films became my way to recover my voice. Which already made film do you wish you had made? I recently saw British/Ghanaian filmmaker and co-founder of the Black Audio Film Collective John Akomfrah’s exhibition 'Hauntologies' in London and I’m grateful to him for this work, in particular for giving life, through visualization, to a black man and woman who appear in a 16^th century painting. Although I do not feel comfortable wishing I had made already made works, I aspire to make films that recover lost voices as perfectly and beautifully as Akomfrah. Name one of the films on your top-5 list and the reason why it is there. Babette’s Feast by Danish director Gabriel Axel, because it deals with the human impulse to give back, and the poetry of memory. Ask yourself any question you think I should have asked and answer it. What was your motivation for making your latest film Our Beloved Sudan? I wanted the footprints of my country to appear in the history, and to tell a story about the partition of my country from a Sudanese perspective. * The ‘5 Questions for a Filmmaker …’ series is archived here.

Award-winning South African/Nigerian filmmaker Akin Omotoso is the director of the feature films “Man on Ground” and “God Is African", the documentaries “Wole Soyinka – Child of the Forest," “Gathering the Scattered Cousins” and the short “Jesus and the Giant” among other films and TV-productions. Omotoso is also an actor, with roles in Andrew Nicol’s Lord of War alongside Nicolas Cage, as Rwandan President Paul Kagame in “Shake Hands with the Devil” by Roger Spottiswoode, and in the South African TV-series "Generations" on his CV. What is your first film memory? I have a couple of film memories from between the age of 4 to 6, mainly because video had just come out and my parents were watching a lot of films that drifted in and out of my consciousness. My first memory is of Sidney Poitier, but I couldn’t tell you which film. It was probably a combination of his films but Poitier as a first film memory is not a bad one to have. Why did you decide to become a filmmaker? I decided to become a filmmaker because I love telling stories. I always loved telling stories and always loved stories. I wanted to be a novelist at first, but at drama school that notion turned into becoming a director. Which already made film do you wish you had made? Lumumba directed by Raoul Peck. The final image in that film is still among the best closing images I have seen, and the opening image of my latest film Man On Ground is a homage to it. Name one of the films on your top-5 list and the reason why it is there. Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash. It was the first film that I saw that had a non-linear narrative. At the time I didn’t understand what I was watching other than it was very confusing but intriguing at the same time. When I watched it again a second time I was blown away. It’s a beautiful film. The way the story is told, the way the African oral tradition is woven into cinematic realisation, the gorgeous cinematography, the music and the performances. A true visual feast. Which question should I have asked?  People always ask me “Do you think African Cinema has arrived?” I always reply “It never left.” * The ‘5 Questions for a Filmmaker …’ series is archived here. Photo Credit: Victor Dlamini.

On one of the last days of AIAC's first #WhiteHistoryMonth, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed in the queue to board the last flight from Murtala Mohmammed International Airport, Lagos to Johannesburg. Behind me stood two South Africans, who were giggling and entertaining each other in a way that had they been ten, or in their teens, an accompanying adult would have asked them to take it down a notch.