MEDI1TV Afrique : Cinéma, littérature et art - 15/02/2025
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00:00And it is with great pleasure that I meet you again on Mediantv for this new
00:15escalation.
00:16Culture.
00:17We will talk in particular about cinema with a superb documentary dedicated to the activist
00:23and photographer artist, Ernest Cole, who simply goes all along his life
00:29to document racial segregation, apartheid in South Africa, but also racial segregation
00:36that he will experience in the United States.
00:38We will also talk about literature or art, but first of all, let's welcome our guest
00:42of the day.
00:43And today, we have the immense pleasure of welcoming an outstanding woman, Touda Boanani.
01:00She is with us to talk to us about a very beautiful project, a real, how to say,
01:09an investigation, not an investigation, but a long-term work where she has grouped all
01:17these things, all these very beautiful things that her father left behind him, Ahmed Boanani.
01:22Hello Touda.
01:23Hello, Amna, I'm happy.
01:26Thank you for being with us and it is true that we absolutely wanted to welcome you because
01:33you have done an exceptional archiving work on the work of your late father, Ahmed Boanani,
01:43but also of your mother, Naima.
01:47And it is true that there is something very touching and fortunate that you have done this work
01:52because Ahmed Boanani, it is true that we will summarize it perhaps in Mirage, so his film,
01:59or his father's, we have these words that come to mind.
02:03We said it off camera, we don't necessarily know for everyone that he was a real man of the shadows,
02:08an intellectual, an artist, and who left behind him a rather incredible legacy.
02:13Where did the idea come from to find all these little bits, to reconstruct them and to propose them to us,
02:22precisely, and to share them with everyone?
02:25So, the starting point is this book, La Septième Porte,
02:30in the Cult editions, which was published in 2020,
02:34which is a book that my father had written between 1982 and 1986.
02:40It has also been translated into Arabic, here it is,
02:45and moreover, it is in your city, at the Cinémathèque de Tangier and at the Librairie des Insolites.
02:52So, this book, which is already a big book, which has quite a few iconographies,
03:00that was the first step of this work,
03:03so we started to digitize the documentation for this book,
03:08and in fact, it seemed important to me to digitize, to classify
03:16and to share all the content of this fund,
03:25which my father, Ahmed, and my mother, Naima, had collected.
03:31So, this is the starting point.
03:37I created an association with several people,
03:40including Ali Safi, Léa Mourin, Marie-Pierre Boutier,
03:44Omar Barada, and with a whole team, with Ahmed Bouraba,
03:51we sorted, selected, and with Simous Lawi,
04:00we created a website and an archive platform
04:04in which we find a large part of the documentation.
04:07So, there are also photographs, posters, scenarios,
04:13drawings, and at different times.
04:19By the way, as La Septième Porte is the name of a French film
04:24that was shot in 1947,
04:27cinema in Morocco begins with colonial cinema,
04:32and so the fund for colonial cinema also exists in the phototech
04:38and on the platform.
04:41It's true that we suddenly imagine the work
04:46that it must have been to gather all these remains,
04:53all this heritage.
04:54It's something physical, but also, I think, emotionally,
05:00that it must not have been easy for you,
05:04because it's leaving, of course, the life of your parents.
05:08How did it happen for you?
05:10Are there things that you weren't aware of at all
05:13and that you discovered?
05:15To know your parents through their written heritage,
05:20I also imagine the soundtracks, all that.
05:24How did this journey go for you?
05:27Yes, it's true that it's quite strange.
05:30First of all, even though I was with my parents
05:34and that we were immersed in cinema,
05:36and that I know a lot of directors and directors from Morocco,
05:40the book and the documentation at home
05:45allowed me to really get to know the cinema that was made in Morocco.
05:50After that, it's true that I also started working on the correspondence
05:55that was received by my parents.
05:57And it's quite strange to read the correspondence,
06:00a correspondence that is not addressed to you.
06:04But fortunately, it is mostly
06:10directed towards work.
06:14And it's true that, Thouda, through what you found
06:18in the family apartment, which is a real little museum,
06:23we're talking about, of course, the life of your father and your mother,
06:28but it's also, in fact, a real archive of Moroccan cinema.
06:34Because your father worked with a lot of Moroccan directors.
06:40It's this wave of 68 artists who went to study in France
06:45and who came back and laid the foundations of Moroccan cinema.
06:49They are the pioneers.
06:50Absolutely.
06:51And that's it. What did you discover about Moroccan cinema?
06:56Sorry?
06:57What did you discover about Moroccan cinema, its beginnings?
07:02Are there things that we don't necessarily know about?
07:10No, things are known, but they are not necessarily accessible.
07:17And besides, the desire to make this platform and to share these archives,
07:23it's because when we did the research for the edition, La Septième Porte,
07:27we found very few things about Moroccan cinema.
07:30And besides, it's a problem for all the countries that have been colonized,
07:36to have very few things on the net about cinema.
07:42And so it seemed to me and to all the members of the Buonanni archives,
07:48that it is important that Moroccan cinema is present on the net,
07:53which is still a great research platform.
07:58And for students of cinema in Morocco,
08:01it is important that they can have documentation of Moroccan cinema.
08:07And Tsouda, where are you in this work of archives, of reconstitution?
08:12Have you finished or not at all?
08:15Where are you today?
08:17So we're not done yet.
08:19There are still a lot of things to digitize.
08:25The advantage is that the two have worked with a lot of people.
08:30For example, there is an important fund, Gilali Verhati,
08:36since Naima had worked a lot with him in most of his films.
08:43And so each one actually brings, and also a different documentation.
08:50We have the aspect, let's say, of the directors,
08:55because we often talk about directors,
08:57but there are also technicians, costumes,
09:04and all the different professions that are just as important to make a film.
09:10And do you think, looking back,
09:15that your father, when he wrote, when he created,
09:20when he was in the middle of thinking,
09:22the fact of leaving all this,
09:24didn't he perhaps have an unconscious desire to make archives,
09:28to leave a trace so that our cultural heritage is palpable in a way?
09:36Completely.
09:37He was someone who was obsessed with memory and heritage.
09:43In fact, one of his films, Memoir 14, which traces the history of Morocco,
09:49is an example.
09:52But in all his films, we find the importance of our culture.
10:02La Halqa, Hossein Slawi, Les Troubadours, Les Compteurs, Les Poètes,
10:09all of this is very present in his films.
10:14And before we leave, because I went to see the site,
10:19it's true that there is a lot,
10:22it takes you a little trip to be able to see this, to share it with us.
10:28Thank you again, a great job, really.
10:32And if you could please remind us of the exact site,
10:37so that people can access it.
10:41So it's www.archives.ni-.org, if I'm not mistaken.
10:52The project was supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation for four years,
10:57which is a German foundation that helps heritage in peril.
11:00And then by the FEMDH,
11:03the Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support for Defenders of Human Rights,
11:12for which memory is important for human rights.
11:17It is very important and thank you for perpetuating this memory
11:22and making your parents live through you and your work.
11:26Thank you very much, Souda.
11:29Thank you very much, Amna.
11:32Goodbye.
11:33Goodbye.
11:39And right away, we talk art with a proteiform artist,
11:43in the plural universe, Soli.
11:45Sissé sees painting as a refuge, as an escape,
11:48his characters do not belong to him,
11:51nor to him, nor to a well-defined culture.
11:54Soli Sissé creates a world of mixing,
11:57where cultures meet and value each other.
12:00His goal is to show the man of today,
12:03open to other realities, other cultures.
12:05Soli Sissé will say, I quote,
12:07my painting is not identical,
12:09I do not try to represent Africa.
12:11His painting is also a struggle for him.
12:14The works of the Senegalese artist Soli Sissé
12:16are deeply inspired by his context and his education.
12:20He grew up during a transition period,
12:22after the period of social and political agitation in Senegal,
12:25where art served as a mode of social activism.
12:29His work is a kind of universe,
12:32where several places, imagined or physical,
12:34come together.
12:35Soli Sissé intuitively explores the notions of duality
12:39and repetition, tradition and modernity,
12:42but also and above all the spiritual.
12:45My painting is very spontaneous.
12:48I like to let the imagination go on its own,
12:53with freedom in expression, in gesture.
13:00It is a painting of dreams.
13:02It is a painting inhabited by hybrid characters,
13:08or gory fantasies.
13:12Since colonization,
13:14there has not been enough interrogation about ancient cultures,
13:18especially by Africans.
13:20So we are foreigners in relation to our own culture.
13:26When I look at an African statuette,
13:29I try to get into the skin.
13:31I try to get into the skin.
13:33When I look at an African statuette,
13:36I try to get into the skin of its creators.
13:39I want to know what animated them,
13:41what pushed them to create these characters.
13:46I want to possess this mystical side,
13:50this mystical thought that animated these people,
13:54so that they can create characters
13:58that are strong enough, powerful enough in their expressions,
14:02and that release a certain energy,
14:07a certain aesthetic.
14:10Solicited's full of life works
14:12take us to a separate universe,
14:14a real invitation to explore the nuances,
14:17if he assures it.
14:18Human existence interests the precariousness of man
14:22in the face of nature, in the face of himself,
14:24in his own challenge of everyday life.
14:26We do unthinkable things, and that scares me.
14:28I am afraid of the future.
14:30There are a lot of problems.
14:31The more technology advances,
14:33that is, science,
14:34the more we lose our humanism.
14:36It is very dangerous.
14:37We build hyper-sophisticated machines,
14:40while we are not ready.
14:42We are afraid that it will transcribe
14:44all this through its metaphorical art.
14:46But for Solicited,
14:47the drawing does not exist as such.
14:50What exists is the hand that draws.
14:52Everyone has their own way,
14:53with the drawing tool, the pencil.
14:55When men drew in the caves,
14:57it was their support for expression.
14:59That is what Solicited says.
15:01It is not for nothing that in therapy,
15:03children are asked to draw
15:05to read their thoughts.
15:07They have things to say,
15:09that they will say through the drawing.
15:11And that is why I respect the drawing.
15:13Music, someone who expresses himself
15:15through music or contemporary dance,
15:17we listen to Solicited.
15:20I am so happy when I create a character
15:24that I do not master,
15:26that I do not understand.
15:28Because then the character
15:30starts to make me think.
15:33When it starts to make me think,
15:36it means that I am in the right direction.
15:41I am not completely locked up
15:45in reality or in dreams.
15:49No.
15:50My work is mainly based
15:53on everyday themes.
15:58I take a bit of everything,
16:00no matter what, no matter how.
16:02For me, it is elements
16:04that make up a palette.
16:06Now I have to do something with it,
16:08trying to exaggerate certain forms,
16:11trying to make forms
16:13that are a bit fanciful,
16:15a bit weird,
16:17a weirdness that drives my thoughts.
16:20And I also try to recreate
16:25this trance, this attitude,
16:29to want to do a kind of meditation,
16:33a kind of spirituality corner,
16:36we can say,
16:38where the elements meet
16:40and I can give meaning
16:42to my reflections and what I do.
16:46As a child, Solicited enjoyed drawing
16:48on the radios that his father
16:50brought home.
16:52Today, he is still fascinated
16:54by the transparencies, the light
16:56that erases the darkness, the essence
16:58of the colors.
16:59For Solicited, each work is a creation
17:01and creation.
17:02Each work gives birth to a new world,
17:04to new creatures,
17:06neither completely human
17:08nor completely animal.
17:10The public has also recently discovered
17:12these extraordinary metal sculptures,
17:14since Solicited is a recognized artist
17:16in the world of art.
17:17His reputation has crossed borders
17:19and his work has been shown
17:21and that's why we have a real crush
17:23on Solicited, whose work is recognized
17:25among the artists.
17:26The real world we live in
17:28is the world that animates us.
17:30It is the world that is in us
17:32and not the world in which we are.
17:34That's why when I paint,
17:36I like to go in a very spontaneous way,
17:38so as not to be seduced and seduce,
17:40because I am in search of truth.
17:44So I don't take the time
17:47to be completely tempted by beauty,
17:53because once we are in this optics,
17:56it's over.
17:58For me, we are no longer in creation.
18:02When I work, as it is a very spontaneous work,
18:06one color calls another.
18:10I try to see what the painting dictates to me.
18:14It is a code of dialogue
18:16between the chosen colors
18:18and the colors that come up.
18:26The effect of a knife is much more random.
18:29It is this random effect,
18:31a little frizzy.
18:35In fact, that's what ends up for me.
18:40So that's why I do everything
18:42so that it gives a little raw effect.
18:46Sometimes I use my left hand
18:48to make it more random,
18:50to make it more spontaneous.
18:54You always have to experiment,
18:56because for me, painting is experimental.
19:02And it is authenticity that makes art, originality.
19:07A film dedicated to Ernest Cole
19:10This South African photographer
19:12who was the first to be exposed
19:14to the world of apartheid
19:16and will count only 27 years
19:18in a definitive exile.
19:20A film crowned with a golden eye
19:22at the last Execo Cannes festival
19:24with the girls of the Nile
19:26and by Nada Riad and Ayman El-Amin,
19:28discovering his book House of Bondage,
19:30published for the first time
19:32in the United States.
19:34Something that will lead the director
19:36to want to make this film,
19:38a real shock.
19:40The director, much later,
19:42after the release of I'm Not Your Negro,
19:44will be contacted by the family
19:46of Ernest Cole,
19:48who asks him to make a film
19:50about Ernest.
19:52Raoul Peck accepts
19:54and that's where the adventure begins.
19:56Ernest Cole, an autodidact
19:58who has discovered
20:00the world of apartheid
20:02at the end of the 1950s,
20:04decides to document
20:06everyday life in South Africa.
20:08But to live there
20:10is to be a witness
20:12of a segregationist regime
20:14where blacks are treated
20:16like sub-humans on their land.
20:18Let's watch the trailer.
20:32But exposing the truth
20:34has a price.
20:38It's called exile.
20:42I was thinking of discovering
20:44a new world of freedom,
20:46of equality.
20:48From New York,
20:50to the south of the United States.
20:52I photographed his body,
20:54his eyes,
20:56furtively crossed.
20:58Yet a reality
21:00In South Africa,
21:02I was afraid of being arrested.
21:04In South America,
21:06I was afraid of being killed.
21:08But I never stopped
21:10photographing.
21:12Not for a moment.
21:31National Geographic
21:34Ernest Cole
21:36photographs a film by Raoul Peck.
21:38As his life progresses,
21:40he will collect evidence
21:42of the inhumanity
21:44in his country
21:46and in the United States.
21:48In the regime's collimator,
21:50he will end up in exile.
21:52In 1966, he settles in the United States.
21:54As he did for the African American
21:56activist James Baldwin
21:58to make his portrait in I'm Not Your Negro,
22:00Raoul Peck uses photos from Ernest Cole in particular,
22:05those whose existence was totally ignored.
22:07The two artists, in years of interval,
22:10show that staging is the key when you have a goal,
22:14regardless of whether the image is mobile or immobile.
22:16In black and white, in color, photos of Anonymous and Ernest Cole
22:20allow Raoul Peck to reconstruct the career of the South African artist
22:25with testimonials, archives.
22:27We discover people's daily lives,
22:29the political life in South Africa and in America.
22:31Nelson Mandela, South African politicians
22:34or foreigners and faces of the fight for civil rights in the United States.
22:38It is also a story of America in the 70s and 80s
22:42that the photographer, a time lost in oblivion,
22:44has written with these clichés
22:46and that Raoul Peck has given to cinema.
22:50THE LITERATURE
22:54And before we leave,
22:56Place à la Littérature with Malcolm de Chazal
23:00who returns with a posthumous book.
23:03It must be said that Chazal is a legendary figure of Mauritian letters.
23:08Born at the beginning of the century in 1902 and disappeared in 1981,
23:14he is the author of a prolific, unbeatable work,
23:16which has paved the way for poetry, poetry, philosophy, economics.
23:21He released La Vie Filtrée in 1949,
23:24Petrus Moch in 1951 or Sens Plastique in 1974.
23:28These are some of his most famous works.
23:31On the occasion of the release of Demi Confidence,
23:34we wanted to talk about this posthumous and autobiographical work,
23:38a kind of confession of other tombs.
23:40Malcolm de Chazal comes back on his journey,
23:43on his relationship to the world, to beings,
23:45how he felt misunderstood, rejected by everyone,
23:47while at the same time being able to stay in contact
23:50with what he calls the innate magic of the poet.
23:54Let's take a look at some of his paintings, Malcolm de Chazal.
24:15Malcolm de Chazal, a great intellectual and artist whose posthumous book
24:29has been released, Demi Confidence, to be discovered urgently.
24:32We are coming to the end of Africa in Culture.
24:34Thank you again for being with us.
24:37We'll see you again next week.
24:38Until then, take care.