Cinema of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Early Belgian colonial films were primarily documenting colonial activities in Belgian Congo and were instrumental in establishing the trajectory that Belgian colonial cinema would take, namely the reporting of colonial activities as well as the promotion of colonialism.^[1] Public interest in Belgian Congo first came about near the end of the First World War and a series of documentary short films were made and screened in Belgium 1919.^[1] In 1925, William Lever Leverhulme financed a film about his plantations in Kwilu.^[1]

Ernest Genval [fr] was a prolific film-maker in Congo during the 1930s making films documenting Congo's railway infrastructure, mining industry and plantations, primarily to encourage business investment.^[1]

During the colonial era before gaining independence, administrators of the Belgian Congo did not allow Africans to watch foreign films, officially because they said they could not understand the difference between fact and fiction. In reality, authorities feared that the films would cause subversive behavior. Colonial cinema was made with the intention of spreading Christianity and "civilisation".^[1]

The government's Film and Photo Bureau made films for the local population in the 1940s, with educational and/or propaganda themes. African workers were employed by the bureau and were taught the basic techniques of film production.^[2]^{[citation needed]} According to Inforcongo, more than 15,000 free educational and recreational film screenings were held across the Belgian Congo in 1957, reaching over 8.5 million people. These screenings formed part of a mass education campaign aimed at the most remote regions of the country. The production of these films was "continuous" and employed Congolese actors.^[3]

The Catholic Church was one of the big financiers of colonial cinema,^[1] and two companies run by Catholic priests also employed Africans in making films about religious values. These were:

The Congolese Center for Catholic Action Cinema (CCCAC, French: Le Centre Congolais d'Action Catholique Cinéma) in Léopoldville
Africa Films in Kivu.

The CCCAC created a series of short films titled Les Palabres de Mboloko (Tales of Mboloko), starring an animated antelope. The government kept firm control over the format and content of the films produced by these two companies.

Belgavox [fr], founded in 1950 in Brussels by George Fannoy, made documentaries and news items in the DRC.^[2]

Following Congo's independence from Belgium in 1960, the country experienced a series of civil wars that largely destroyed the nascent film industry. Foreign support has allowed some directors to create movies in the DRC, notably from the French ministry of foreign affairs. The DRC government has shown interest in assisting the development of a local film industry. Almost all DRC filmmakers live and work abroad.^[2]

Mwezé Ngangura is among the best known Congolese directors of his generation. Following his first short film Tamtam électronique (Electronic Tamtam) in 1973 he directed the shorts Chéri-Samba (1980) a portrait of the now world famous painter, and Kin Kiesse (1982) about the Congolese city of Kinshasa that would inspire his award-winning first feature, La Vie est Belle in 1987.^[4] His Identity Pieces,^[5] a musical comedy, won the Stallion de Yennenga at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in 1999.

Raoul Peck, a Haitian who was brought up in Zaire, directed the documentary Lumumba. La mort d'un prophète (1991), about the life of Patrice Lumumba, who led the country into independence. Kibushi N'djate Wooto produced the animated short Crapaud chez ses beaux-parents [fr] in 1992, with French funding.

In 1994 Josef Kumbela made the short Perle noire (Black Pearl), which he followed with a series of other short films. As production support in Congo remains limited, many filmmakers like Jose Laplaine have sought international funding for their projects, such as in his comic drama Macadam Tribu (Macadam Tribe) (1996),which satirized the constant quest for money, status, and sex in Africa’s urban neighborhoods.^[2] Petna Ndaliko is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and activist who founded and directs the Yole!Africa cultural center and the Salaam Kivu International Film Festival [sco] (SKIFF).^[6] SKIFF, the first film festival in the DRC, brought together over 15,000 people in a span of ten days.^[when?] The festival screens international and local cinema, and has an open-air concert and numerous dance competitions. In 2014 SKIFF celebrated its 10th anniversary.^[7] However, as recorded in Guy Bomanyama-Zandu's 2005 documentary Le Congo, quel cinéma!, local productions today have difficulty making money.^[8] The film follows three Congolese technicians (Claude Mukendi, Pierre Mieko, and Paul Manvidia-Clarr) and Ferdinand Kanza, a director who made films in the 1970s and now works at the National Radio Television of Congo.^[9] Another 2005 documentary by the same director, La Mémoire du Congo en péril (The Momory of Congo in Danger), describes the Congolese Film Library. The library owns thousands of films that form part of the history of Congolese cinema, some dating as far back as 1935. They are in extremely poor condition and in danger of being lost.^[10]

In 2009 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was using the cinema to break taboos on discussing rape, which was commonplace during the civil wars. The documentary Breaking the Silence covers sexual violence and abuse of women, topics that most people are reluctant to discuss. It was made by IF Productions of the Netherlands and is being screened by a mobile cinema operated by Search for Common Ground (SFCG), a US-based NGO. Screenings are often open-air, with power provided by a generator.^[11] Nonetheless, in 2015 the DRC government, cancelled scheduled screenings of Thierry Michel's L'homme qui répare les femmes (The Man Who Repairs Women) about Dr Denis Mukwege, a Nobel nominee who treats survivors of rape, torture and mutilation in the violence against women that has been endemic to Congolese civil wars.^[12] Lambert Mende, the DRC communications minister, said the film made “unjustified attacks” on soldiers.^[12]

Filmmaker Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda helped organize the first Semaine du film congolais (Sefico) festival in May 2011 at Le Zoo, a cultural center. In July 2001 Bakupa-Kanyinda announced at the Festival du cinéma africain in Khouribga that he intended to acquire four cinemas in Kinshasa. He was looking for partners to help acquire the cinemas to serve Kinshasa, a city with ten million inhabitants but no cinemas at all.^[13] The industry was given a sobriquet of CongoFilmz to help brand Congolese cinema and promote it further worldwide.

Cinema of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Colonial era (1908-1960)

Post-independence

See also

References

Wikiwand - on