Sembène 100

March 3–April 21, 2024

A centennial tribute featuring new digital restorations and rare 35mm prints in honor of the great filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, whose cinema is about Senegal coming into its own as a nation. Rebellious and committed, Sembène paved the way for generations of African filmmakers.

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Mandabi
Black Girl
Moolaadé

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Past Films

Sembène!
Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman
United States, Senegal, 2015
Sunday, March 3 3 PM
“A documentary about the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker, this movie covers the essentials about a cultural warrior whose nine varied features and assorted shorts could still use better recognition” (New York Times).
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Black Girl
Ousmane Sembène
France, Senegal, 1966
4K Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 7 7 PM
Her postcolonial hopes dashed, a young Senegalese woman is led to a dramatic act of resistance in Black Girl, considered Africa’s first dramatic feature. With Borom sarret, a poignant, politically charged essay on a cart driver in the poorer sections of Dakar, and Niaye, about the scandal of a pregnant young girl.
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Mandabi
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 1968
4K Digital Restoration
Thursday, March 14 7 PM
A comic fable about a middle-aged man in Dakar whose life changes when he receives a money order from Paris. “[Ousmane] Sembène’s approach is spare, laconic, slightly ironic, and never patronizing” (New York Times). The film received the International Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
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Sembène!
Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman
United States, Senegal, 2015
Friday, March 22 5 PM
“A documentary about the trailblazing Senegalese filmmaker, this movie covers the essentials about a cultural warrior whose nine varied features and assorted shorts could still use better recognition” (New York Times).
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Emitaï
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 1971
4K Digital Restoration
Sunday, March 24 4 PM
Named for the Diola god of thunder, a story about the awakening of national consciousness, in the clash between French colonists and the Diola tribe in the closing days of World War II. “Told with great sensitivity and restraint” (San Francisco Chronicle). Preceded by the short dramatic film Tauw.
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Xala
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 1975
4K Digital Restoration
Sunday, March 31 4 PM
An aging, affluent businessman about to marry his third wife is struck with the curse of xala (impotence) in “one of the most sophisticated works of the African cinema—at once both comic satire and a deadly accurate polemic against the black bourgeoisie of Dakar” (Albert Johnson).
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Ceddo
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 1977
4K Digital Restoration
Sunday, April 7 1:30 PM
In the guise of a political thriller set in the eighteenth century, Ceddo takes on taboo subjects—Islamic influence in Senegal, African support for the slave trade, the status of women—becoming a reflection on all forms of colonialism in Africa. “Like a contemporary Euripides, [Ousmane] Sembène has created a form of public, primal art” (Village Voice).
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Guelwaar
Ousmane Sembène
France, Senegal, 1992
Digital Restoration
Saturday, April 13 7 PM
When the body of a murdered political activist goes missing from the morgue, his family’s attempts to retrieve it nearly escalate into a holy war. “A work of wry sophistication” (New York Times).
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Faat Kiné
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, 2001
35mm Archival Print
Friday, April 19 7 PM
The first in Ousmane Sembène’s series on “everyday heroes” (Moolaadé is the second) centers on the quick-witted proprietress of a Dakar gas station. “A rich comedy of manners that gives a feeling of hope about Africa’s future” (Film Comment).
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Moolaadé
Ousmane Sembène
Senegal, France, Burkina Faso, 2004
Imported 35mm Print
Sunday, April 21 2 PM
Universally acclaimed, Ousmane Sembène’s final film portrays a mother’s courage in protecting the next generation of women from the terrible tradition of female genital mutilation. “A masterpiece of political filmmaking” (New York Times).
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Sembène 100

March 3–April 21, 2024

“Sembène is an African Molière.” —Jack Kroll, Newsweek

Often referred to as the “pioneer” or “dean” of African cinema, Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène (1923–2007) gained international recognition in 1966, when he was awarded the Jean Vigo Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Black Girl. His films have influenced several generations of African filmmakers and allowed viewers in many parts of the world to gain greater insight into Senegalese culture. Known as a talented novelist before he turned his attention to filmmaking at age forty, Sembène was motivated to make films to reach a wider audience in African countries, where high illiteracy rates prevented his books from receiving broad circulation.

“Sembène is an African Molière.” —Jack Kroll, Newsweek

Sembène's cinema is about Senegal coming into its own as a nation; it addresses the growing pains associated with political independence. Several of his films deal with French colonial domination and its legacy (Black Girl, Emitaï) or the historical influence of Islam and Christianity on the region (Ceddo, Guelwaar). Others offer social commentaries on contemporary Senegalese life and explore tensions between African traditions and values inherited from the West (Mandabi, Xala, Faat Kiné). Over the years, certain films have been censored or banned temporarily by the Senegalese government (Xala, Ceddo) for being too critical of the government or of Islam, the country’s primary religion. Shaped by the school of Soviet social realism (he studied at the Gorki Studios), his cinema remains deeply rooted in social concerns that transcend style and genre. Sembène!, the 2015 documentary portrait of the artist codirected by his biographer, Samba Gadjigo, offers important context to the films and controversy surrounding this rebellious spirit, who paved the way for African filmmakers.

—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator

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Thanks to Brian Belovarac, Janus Films, and Emilie Cauquy, La Cinémathèque française, for their assistance with this centennial tribute to Ousmane Sembène.