Tribute to Samba Felix N'Diaye1
BUOY TENDER AND FACILITATOR
This tribute, although belated, to Samba Félix Ndiaye, a pioneer of
documentary film in the African continent, is dictated by a concern for fidelity
to the work of a man who chose documentary as a homeland to show and
think Africa and Senegal, his country. I met the director in 2008 at Carthage Film Festival. He then chaired the jury of the video section. A veto of the Syrian embassy against the Syrian documentary "Zabad" by Rym Ali had resulted in the elimination of this film from the competition. At the closing ceremony, taking a strong position in the context at that time, Samba said that by mutual agreement the jury had decided not to award a prize to the short film section due to the fact that a movie was lacking in the selection.
A year later, during the Rencontres Henri Langlois dedicated to school films, I found myself on the same panel as Samba Felix to talk about film teaching in African schools. He fervently defended the idea of finding a specific channel for film teaching on the continent. The necessity to have a rooted outlook in order to paint the world is at the heart of the ethics and film approach of Samba Félix Ndiaye "it is from what we are, from what we know that we can witness the world".
Senegal, his native land is the place par excellence from which Samba Felix has deployed his outlook. No hierarchy in his films but a constant concern, as he said, to "give back what people give me: their eyes" his documentaries cover themes as diverse as Garbage Treasures, massages given to babies in Perantal, the Rwandan genocide in Rwanda for Memory or more overtly political films like Letter to Senghor or Questions to the Native Land, his latest documentary.
The renewed vitality that documentary filmmaking is going through in the region in a certain way fulfills Samba Félix Ndiaye's wishes, the buoy tender and facilitator.
Ikbal ZALILA
120 - TRESORS DES POUBELLES (CHUTES NGALAM, DIPLOMATE À LA TOMATE, TEUG, MALLES, AQUA) de - SENEGAL ( 1989 )
121 - DAKAR-BAMAKO de - SENEGAL ( 1992 )
122 - NGOR, L’ESPRIT DES LIEUX de - SENEGAL ( 1994 )
123 - UN FLEUVE DANS LA TETE de - SENEGAL ( 1998 )
124 - LETTRE A SENGHOR de - SENEGAL ( 1997 )
125 - RWANDA POUR MEMOIRE de - SENEGAL ( 2003 )
126 - QUESTIONS A LA TERRE NATALE de - SENEGAL ( 2007 )
