April 210, 2011 The Master, The Rebel, and the Artist: The Films
of Ousmane Sembène, Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Moussa Sene Absa
Presented in collaboration with the Institute of African
Studies, Columbia University Guest curator: June Givanni All
three directors give voice to the African people through their
films: they were screen griots, and their work has much in
common. In their films, women are portrayed centrally as agents
of change and as risk takers, reflecting their true
revolutionary role in Senegalese society. The directors also
choose to focus on the “little people” of everyday life. A less
central but nonetheless frequent impulse in their work is the
recognition and embrace of a pan-African relationship to the
continent and the diaspora, a tension between the homeland and
the West. The Master: Ousmane Sembène Sembène—docker, trade
unionist, prolific novelist, and filmmaker for four decades—is
widely known as the master of African cinema. This title
reflects not just his storytelling and visual mas