Introduced by Aboubakar Sanogo
The pre-independence Afrique sur Seine explores the lives of Africans living in Paris, its poetic voiceover evoking the many uncertainties about identity that plagued students in a colonialist era. (Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Mamadou Sarr, 1955, subtitles, 21 minutes)
Samba le grand’s colorful stop-motion puppets relate an African folktale about a would-be conqueror who meets his match in a female potentate. (Moustapha Alassane, 1977, subtitles, 14 minutes)
A pioneer of the cinema of Niger, Alassane was known for playful satire and piercing observations on contemporary African life. In The Return of an Adventurer, a man coming back to his home village from America bears gifts of cowboy outfits for his friends. A mock-ruthless Western movie ensues, scorning contemporary values and consumerism and poking fun at the filmmaker’s own postcolonial peers. (Moustapha Alassane, 1966, subtitles, 34 minutes)