Tunisian filmmaker, critic, and historian Férid Boughedir's 1983 documentary "Caméra d'Afrique" screens in 2K restoration at the 33rd New York African Film Festival today, Saturday, May 9, at noon.
The film premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 1983 and returned to Cannes Classics in 2019 after restoration by France's Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée with support from the Institut français.
"Caméra d'Afrique" brings together film extracts, archival footage, and interviews with Ousmane Sembène, Med Hondo, Safi Faye, Souleymane Cissé, Jean-Pierre Dikongué-Pipa, Inoussa Ousseini, Gaston Kaboré, and Tahar Cheriaa.
Boughedir spent ten years making the film with limited money, filmmaker cooperation, and postproduction support from Andrée Davanture's Atria, a key structure for Francophone African cinema between 1980 and 1999.
NYAFF has named Boughedir an honored pioneer. Today's extended conversation offers a rare chance to revisit what "Caméra d'Afrique" recorded, after four more decades of African film, television, video, festivals, and streaming activity.
