In troubled Sahel, memories of a cinematic golden age

The wall of a house in Torokorobougou, a district in the Malian capital Bamako, suddenly lights up as a black-and-white film starts to roll.

The audience falls silent as the title of the documentary, "Sigui", flashes up on the screen.

It's one of French director Jean Rouch's seminal films, charting a secret ceremony of central Mali's Dogon ethnic group which is held once every 60 years.

Rouch, who died aged 86 in a road accident in Niger, is the only person to have ever recorded it.

He shot around 140 films over his long career, including many in West Africa and particularly the Sahel state of Niger.

While his work has faced criticism for reflecting the condescending colonial attitudes of the time, the film-maker-cum-ethnographer was a prime mover in the Sahel's cinematic tradition and a champion of local directors.

But memories of Rouch's work are fading, while the once-flourishing movie scene in the semi-arid African region has been battered by a lack of funding.

"He is the grandfather of cinema in Niger," said Moussa Hamidou, the country's first sound producer, who worked on all of Rouch's films.

The Frenchman gave many of Niger's prominent cultural figures their start such as director Oumarou Ganda who in 1969 became the first African to present a film at the Cannes festival.

Hamidou talks cheerfully in his home in Niger's capital Niamey about the artistic milieu that once thrived in the city.

"It was a good time for West Africa," he said, explaining that directors had access to funding.

But the Sahel's cinematic heyday of the 60s and 70s is a now distant memory, with funding having mostly dried up.

Governments across the Sahel are more focused on combatting the brutal...

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