A Film Festival in Ouagadougou Puts African Cinema on Screen

In February 1969, the film club of the Centre Culturel Franco-Voltaïque in Ouagadougou organized a week of African cinema in Upper Volta, the country later renamed Burkina Faso. Called the Semaine du cinéma africain, or African Film Week, this first edition filled cinemas, schools and other venues across the capital with films from West African countries including Senegal, Niger, Upper Volta and Cameroon, by directors such as Ousmane Sembène. Alimata Salembéré, who chaired the organizing committee of the first festival, helped establish the project, which sought to create an independent distribution platform and cultural venue for African creators.

The institutional identity of the gathering consolidated rapidly over the following three years. A related assembly of directors founded the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers in 1970 to strengthen regional collaboration and distribution networks. Its second edition, held in 1970, drew more entries from a wider range of countries. On January 7, 1972, a formal governmental decree officially instituted the event as a permanent organization in Ouagadougou, adopting the abbreviated acronym FESPACO during its third edition.