In 1986, the Festival of the 3 Continents showed a new film by a young film-maker from Mali in competition: Cheick-Oumar Sissoko’s Nyamanton (The Garbage Boys).
Since then, the Festival and this film-maker have had a long and friendly relationship which has taken the form of a support to the projects he undertook and the programming of his films. Over the last fourteen years, we have enjoyed his talent and appreciated his commitment to cinema.
African cinema is notoriously poor, both in films and filmmakers. This is why we thought it was ail the more important to pay a tribute to someone we like very much for his outstanding work as a courageous and militant (in the best sense of the word) film-maker. Cheick-Oumar Sissoko has already done a lot for African cinema. We hope he can carry on with his mission and it is with great pleasure that we have included ail his fiction films in this year’s programme.
Alain Jalladeau