DIRECTOR

He is 60 years old, a musician and a filmmaker. He made the first feature film in the country, Gito, the Ungrateful. He has made 4 feature-length documentaries.

His first documentary film (La Mère et l’Ange – The Mother and the Angel) was about the first woman to publicly announce that she was HIV positive. This woman became a legend. Even if cinema is still at an embryonic stage, the population is drawn to documentaries because these films portray daily life.

He created the Burundi Film Festival 4 years ago. The Festicab is a film network of the East African Community that he set in place so that people could exchange their last productions. It is a first step to mutual support and assistance between filmmakers in our region. We are trying to create a synergy. And this will help the younger people to travel and progress in cinema.

During the festival, there are always training workshops. Direction, cinematography, sound… BFC (Burundi Film Center) was put into motion by the Canadians, Coprodac (The Collective of Producers for Developing Arts and Culture). Day after day, there are more training programmes available and advances are made.

The governments in Central Africa do not truly understand the importance of culture in development. However, at an international level, things are in motion. These countries signed the UNESCO agreements (2003-05) for Culture, but do not act in consequence. They have not understood or integrated the meanings behind the signed agreements. There is a serious problem as regards vision and determination.

The countries in Central Africa are privileged because they have varied resources but these resources are not used.

DIRECTOR / PRODUCER

With a degree in communications, he first worked as a cameraman/editor and then moved towards direction. He founded a production company, Netty Productions.

When we compare commissioned films to creation films, unfortunately, commissioned films are far superior.

There are not many documentary makers. The the making of documentaries is not very common because directors do not really have producers. And producers do not want to get involved in documentaries because there is no window for finding funding.

The first feature film was produced 20 years ago (Gito, the Ungrateful – Léonce Ngabo). Fiction films have started to revive over the past few years, but only in the shape of short features.

The only way for them to get financing is by taking it from their own pockets. There is a synergy between the younger people. When there is a project, they contact the different technicians (cameraman, sound engineer, editor), they coordinate and they start shooting. Everyone does it voluntarily. Now even the actors are willing to donate their time to get something done and show what can be done.

In the second stage, where some people are now, it’s all about showing what you have produced. This phase started along with the Festival (Festicab).

The Ministry is present, but there is no clear policy as regards cinema. The Ministry backs the Festival, but its aid is not significant. The Ministry needs to support creation. Without creation, we will never be able to speak of cinema.

There is no film school. There are just Communications Faculties at the universities, but they have no materials. Most people train on the job or learn abroad.

We need to reinforce our skills. Most people have some knowledge, but they need to build foundations for it if they want to become truly professional.

Any government coming out of a crisis such as ours is going to say that culture is not one of their priorities, that first they need to make progress in other sectors. But they are wrong. And it is up to people in the film sector to make them see that, through culture, we can raise awareness and reconcile the population. We can offer the population hope again. Even if there are not very many resources, if there is a will, we could make a few films every year.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Burundi’s first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only four months in office. Since then, some 200,000 Burundians have perished in widespread, often intense ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or have become refugees in neighboring countries. Burundian troops, seeking to secure their borders, intervened in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998. More recently, many of these troops have been redeployed back to Burundi to deal with periodic upsurges in rebel activity. A new transitional government, inaugurated on November 1, 2001, was to be the first step towards holding national elections in three years. However, the unwillingness of the Hutu rebels to enact a cease fire with Bujumbura continues to obstruct prospects for a sustainable peace.

HISTORY OF CINEMA FROM 1896-2000

Burundi has hardly any recorded cinematic history. This country has suffered tremendeously from wars and ethnic rebellion throughout the twentieth century. During the colonial period (Belgium) news and propaganda films were shown in theatres in the major cities. In 1980 Burundian Jean-Michel Hussi Nyamusimba produced the first Burundi film, a French coproduction called Ni-Ni. In 1992 Burundi’s first feature film, Gito l’Ingrat, was released, a Swiss French Burundi co-production directed by Leonce Ngabo.

The film earned some international recognition by winning awards at the Montreal and FESPACO film festivals. He fled as a political refugee to Canada in 1995. He is currently working on his second feature film, Le parfum de ciel. In the mid nineties the Collectif d’Enfants Burundais co-produced several 30-minute documentaries with Belgian Atelier Graphoui. Since then financial difficulty forced the closure of Burundi’s only film production company. Today Burundi still suffers from the ethnic wars and no films are currently in production.

by Claire Diao

Here, we drive on the right with English steering wheels, we try not to go out once the sun has set, we clean the streets on Saturday as a gesture of “collective work”, we sniff at the air full of vegetable aromas, we admire the waves crashing on the bank of the river, our eyes linger on the sharpness of someone’s traits, on women’s Afro cuts from the 70s, on men having their hair done at women’s hair salons, on the soldiers and armed police in the city, on small fishes (ndagala) to be nibbled on, or tasty beers (Primus, Amstel) to be downed in the bars.

Welcome to Burundi – karibu in Swahili! In Bujumbura, the capital of the country, the 4th Edition of the Burundi International Film and Audiovisual Festival (Festicab) took place in June. It was a great celebration honoring the Seventh Art in a country just emerging from a war and that does not yet know if art and cinema buffs will help the country move forward. Nonetheless, everyone, sponsors, government officials, guests and godmother (Aminata Diallo Glez, the Kadi Jolie of Burkina Faso), cheered on the event and are full of hope as regards the future of this budding cinema.

In 1991, there was a internationally lauded feature film, Gito, the Ungrateful, by Léonce Ngabo; and in 2011, so twenty years later, the FESPACO awarded the Special Prize for Fostering Human Rights to the documentary Histoire d’une haine manqué (Story of a Hatred Missed) by Eddy Munyamuneza. As of 2009, local prizes are awarded at Festicab to young short-feature filmmakers who make either fiction or documentaries.

There have been numerous screenings at the IFB (French Institute of Burundi) this year, attended by intellectuals and students studying History via quality documentaries programmed at Panorama. There were also completely packed screenings and shouts of laughter when Kino took place – the first event of its kind in Burundi that allowed dozens of young people to make short features in 48 hours.

There have also been debates with the students of Celab (Burundi Center for Teaching Languages), gathered around a flat screen TV and a DVD player made in Taiwan that would shriek out incomprehensible words in Taiwanese each time the operator opened or closed the DVD player. Debates in which directors Queen Belle Monique Nyeniteka, Lara Lee… were the only women in the auditorium because female students stayed away from the Public University at night.

There were also screening sessions organised at the Kamenge Young People’s Center, a superb free training center for young people in the neighborhood where the war broke out in 1993/1994. However, the center’s multiple activities (concerts, musical showcases…) did not leave time to organise the screenings as they deserved, the music from outside overlapping the already imperfect sound in the room, and young people rehearsing would stand in front of the screen rapping out loud while they waited for their turn on stage… There were screenings inland as well, which the journalist from Radio Culture, Alain Nova, attended, bearing witness that it is hard to organise screenings during exams, even if Burundi films were met with great success.

There was also a ceremony held on the beach, at the edge of the water, where the Burundi Drums thundered while dancers flew through the air. However, due to the lack of resources (Festival subsidies were suspended), international guests were absent and the organisers of the Festicab had to step up on stage, time after time, to pick up the uncollected awards. There were many films, enthusiasm, catalogues held up at customs, incredible efforts made by the team, humor, consideration, and the guests were received with open arms. There was even a Etalon de Yennenga (a Yennenga Stallion), handed over by the Festival’s godmother to Léonce Ngabo, while waiting for a filmmaker to come get one at the Fespaco in Ouagadougou.

But, above all, there is hope in a country that has just emerged from a war, and that is looking towards the future, hope that cinema can restore the luster to this country’s image, help young talents emerge, and reach more of the populace thanks to the acquisition of a mobile movie theater that takes films to them rather than waiting for the population to come to them.

• Gito, l’ingrat 1992, Léonce Ngabo
• Métis (Le) 1997, Joseph Bitamba
• Ultime aventure (L’) 2007, Natacha Songore
• Na Wewe (Toi aussi) 2010, Ivan Goldschmidt
• Pourquoi moi? 2011, Vénuste Maronko
• Umukundanya 2011, Fabrice Iranzi
• Ubugaragwa 2012, Célestin Gakwaya
• Talent caché (Le) 2012, Sandra Simbakwira
• Désillusions (Les) 2012, Olivier Iturerere
• Nitwa Rehema 2012, Joseph Ndayisenga
• Prix de la veangeance (Le) 2012, Ophélie Baranshamaje
• Ruine de l’âme 2012, Paul Ngenzi

• Apport de la femme burundaise dans l’élevage (L’) Spès Ndongozi
• Portrait d’une chanteuse burundaise Spès Ndongozi
• Participation de la femme burundaise dans l’amélioration de l’habitat des pauvres Spès Ndongozi
• Au Royaume de Mwambusta 1951, Gérard de Boe
• Sacre de Mgr Ntuyahaga (Le)
• Marie-Louise: Femme aux multiples facettes 1998, Sham-Jeanne Hakizimana
• Armée des anges (L’) 2000, Joseph Bitamba
• Bulaya, qu’as-tu fait de mon enfant? 2004, Lydia Ngaruko
• ANSS une lutte ordinaire / An Extraordinary Struggle 2006, Samuel Tilman
• Mieux vaut mal vivre que mourir 2007, Justine Bitagoye, Gaudiose Nininahazwe
• Kazuba le soleil se lève 2008, Justine Bitagoye
• En attendant le retour des éléphants 2008, Léonce Ngabo
  
• Mère et l’Enfant (La) 2008, Léonce Ngabo
• Histoire d’une haine manquée 2010, Eddy Munyamuneza
• Burundi 1850-1962 2010, Léonce Ngabo
• Etranger chez soi 2010, B. M Nyeniteka, E. W. Kaneza
• Kubita 2011, Maria Tarantino
• Enseignement du kiswahili au Burundi (L’) 2011, Raymond Arnaud
• Suzanne 2011, Evrard Niyomwungere
• Des mariages de swahilis à Buyenzi 2012, Raymond Arnaud
• Artiste burundais (L’) 2012, Christian Elvis Sinzinkayo
• Droit à l’éducation, mythe ou réalité 2012, Clarine NKurunziza