SEMBÈNE Series at Film Forum + Q&A with Framework Board Member Samba Gadjigo

SEMBÈNE: Friday, September 8 – Thursday, September 21 at Film Forum in NYC

A two-week retrospective of the pioneering Senegalese auteur’s radical, groundbreaking work, commemorating his centennial year. The series spans across four decades, from his debut feature BLACK GIRL (1966), a harrowing drama widely celebrated as the first African film; to his Cannes-prize winning final film MOOLAADÉ (2004); and includes the U.S. theatrical premiere of three new 4K restorations — EMITAÏ (1971), XALA (1975), and CEDDO (1977); as well as his essential short films Borom Sarret (1963), Niaye (1964), and Tauw (1970), along with Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman’s documentary SEMBENE! (2015).

“While he had a late start as a moviemaker, his films got better with age. They were the work of a pioneer; fierce, didactic, abundantly alive with pride, shame, fury, hope and realism… Art was his activism. His movies were dramas that made you laugh, comedies that shook your heart, tracts that boiled the blood.”–Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Q&A with SEMBÈNE! filmmakers Samba Gadjigo (Framework Board Member) and Jason Silverman
Sunday, September 10 at 12:30

Samba Gadjigo is the Helen Day Gould Professor of French and a member of the Africana Studies program at Mt. Holyoke College, the official biographer of Ousmane Sembène and the co-creator of The Sembène Project, which is dedicated to bringing African culture to the African people through the promotion of the works of Sembène. His film SEMBÈNE!, co-directed with Jason Silverman, premiered at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals and was named on of Vulture/New York Magazine’s top 10 films of 2015.

Jason Silverman is the co-Executive Director of Upstate Films and the co-creator of The Sembène Project and the documentary SEMBÈNE! With Samba Gadjigo, he created Sembène Across Africa, which to date has co-produced more than 450 free public screenings of the Ousmane Sembène’s works in 47 African nations. In total, the project, through the screenings, free streams and broadcasts, has reached millions of African viewers.

Check out Framework 61.2, Fall 2020 including
DOSSIER: Ousmane Sembene: The Rebel with a Camera
Guest editor: Samba Gadjigo

“In this issue, Framework 61-2, the dossier Ousmane Sembene: The Rebel with a Camera features never before published work. Guest edited by Samba Gadjigo, Sembene’s executor and the co-director, with Jason Silverman, of the documentary Sembene! (US/SN 2016), the dossier includes the unpublished ‘Liberté,’ a 1956 poem by Sembene, and the unpublished 1974 interview with him by Tahar Cheriaa, as well as essays by Moustapha Diop and Gadjigo.”—Senior Editor Drake Stutesman