Bassek Ba Kobhio (born 1957) is a Cameroonian filmmaker, writer[1] and founder of the Ecrans Noirs[2] film festival in Yaounde, Cameroon. He is also the Director of the Higher Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Professionals of Central Africa (ISCAC) in Yaounde, the first-ever tertiary training institution for cinematography in the Central Africa sub-region.[3]
Bassek Ba Kobhio | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1957 Ninje |
| Nationality | Cameroonian |
| Citizenship | Cameroonian |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, writer |
| Notable work | Le grand blanc de Lambaréné |
Life
editBassek Ba Kobhio was born in 1957 in Ninje.[4] He started as a writer, winning a short story award while still at high school in 1976.
Kobhio's first feature film, Sango Malo (1991) was an auto-adaptation of his earlier novel. The film portrayed a new village school teacher whose indifference to traditional customs causes conflict with the school's headmaster and disrupts village life. His second film, Le grand blanc de Lambaréné (1995), brought out the complexities of character of Albert Schweitzer. Despite clear differences of setting and subject matter, both films "offer vivid portraits of flawed idealists who wish to do good, but are authoritarian, puritanical, at odds with their surroundings and neglectful towards their womenfolk".[5]
In 2003 he collaborated with Didier Ouénangaré on The Silence of the Forest, an adaptation of a novel by Étienne Goyémidé.[6]
Works
editFilms
edit- Sango Malo / The Village Teacher, 1990
- Le grand blanc de Lambaréné / The Great White Man of Lambaréné, 1995
- Musique s'en va-t-en guerre [Music goes to war], 1997. Documentary.
- (with Didier Ouénangaré) Le silence de la forêt / The Forest, 2003
Books
edit- Sango Malo: le maître du canton [Sango Malo: the village teacher], Paris: L'Harmattan, 1981
- Les eaux qui débordent: nouvelles, Paris: L'Harmattan, 1984
References
edit- ^ Armes, Roy (2008). Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35116-6.
- ^ "Bassek Ba Kobhio, l'homme qui met le cinéma au cœur de l'Afrique". TV5MONDE (in French). 2017-07-17. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
- ^ "New cinematography institution to boost film industry". University World News. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
- ^ Roy Armes (2008). Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-253-35116-6.
- ^ Roy Armes (2006). African Filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara. Indiana University Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-253-21898-5.
- ^ Stefanson, Blandine; Petty, Sheila, eds. (2014). "Literary Adaptation". Directory of World Cinema Africa. Vol. 39. Intellect Books. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-78320-391-8.