Originally published in Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film Video and Television. Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, 2000.
Interview held at Vues d'Afrique 1997, Montreal, Quebec, April 1997. Translated from French.
Could you talk about yourself, your background, and about how you became interested in animation cinema? It's fascinating, because we don't see animation films in African cinema.
I was born in East Germany. I lived there for eight years, after which I lived in Burkina Faso for nine years, and then I came to Canada. After having studied in various places, I received a diploma in communication with a minor in animation cinema, and that is how I came to cinema.
At first, I wanted to work in television, but afterwards I found that it was much more interesting to work in animation because I draw quite a bit. I genuinely like drawing and I think that it is a way to express oneself and to be able to express universal ideas. There are many of my films that don't have dialogue and this allows me to touch a larger audience, such as with the last film that I made Le joueur de cora (The Cora Player).
Could you expound on the themes of your films and how your films have been received?
I made my first film in 1992, which was called La femme mariée à trois hommes (A Woman Married to Three Men), based on a tale from Zaire. It was my first work, which took me a long time to do. It was very well received and I was awarded prizes for this film. Afterwards, I did two shorter animation films. One was based on a poem. The film was an illustrated poem called Naissance (Birth). The other film was called l'Arrêt d'autobus (The Bus Stop). The theme of this film was about racism and interracial relationships in Montreal. It was especially addressed to children, and presented in a light-hearted manner. It was a two-minute film, so there was not the possibility to go too deeply. It was just to give an idea, to give a glance.
The next film, Joueur de cora, which I have just completed, is being screened at Vues d'Afrique. It was also screened at FESPACO a few months ago and was awarded a prize. It is a seven-minute film, which is part of the collection "Droits au coeur." The "Droits au coeur" [Rights from the Heart] collection was initiated by the "l'Office national du film du Canada. Within this cadre, two parts—which include seven films in each part—have already been produced, all of which deal with the subject of children's rights as decreed by the United Nations. Since the films in Parts One and Two of the collection had only presented a Canadian perspective on the rights of children, or a Canadian interpretation of these rights, it was thought that it would be interesting to do a third part in co-production with countries from other parts of the world. A search began for co-producers and foreign directors, which in the end, included two Czech directors, two directors from India, one Cuban director, who is also a woman, and me as a Burkinabé filmmaker. Thus, we have the point of view of Indians, Czechs, and Cubans, and their perspectives on the rights of children and how they portray it. The film Joueur de cora is part of this collection.
You are Burkinabé, and you lived for some time in Burkina Faso. You are German; you were born in Germany. Now you live in Montreal, where you have been for some time. How do you live this multiple identity? I don't know, perhaps I can call you a "poly-cultural" person?
"Poly-cultural," yes. I think it brings something particularly interesting. I think it reflects the way that I make films. My films are never about a specific culture. They are films that always touch on a universal theme. I consider myself a citizen of the earth before anything else. I am an Earthwoman.
The fact is that I come from not only different cultures but also two races—I am half-white and half-black—I truly experience this in every sense of the term. When I was in Germany, I was told "You are black," but when I was in Africa I was told "You are white," I was put in the category "white" and viewed as such. When I arrived in Canada, I was again told "You are black." Thus, I lived in all my environments within a context of never being entirely part of a particular race. What was good for me in this experience was that I acquired a tolerance and a sense of a universality of many things. I also learned the acceptance of difference and the diversity of cultures.
Personally, I can say that I am a person who is multi-cultural in every sense of the word. Which means that I feel very European sometimes, often very African, and very Quebecois. I have lived in Quebec for seventeen years and have adopted much of the Quebecois culture, also. I feel very much at ease in all these cultures, and I feel at home. What I hope is that it will never happen that one day I am told, "Excuse me, but you do not belong after all." Though I do feel that I belong, I feel something more as well. I live this "something more" and I attempt to make the connections between different things. For me, there is no real difference; we are all similar with differences that are particular to the personality or culture of each person. However, these are not differences that should be used to form the judgment that one is better than the other.
You have been here in Montreal, Quebec, in North America, for a long time, which is neither Europe nor Africa; do you also feel part of an African Diaspora?
No, I identify very much as Quebecois. Though I will say that it often depends on where I am and with whom who I am. For instance, when I am at Vues d'Afrique, and when I participate in the events at Vues d'Afrique, I become truly African, I feel African. When I am at FESPACO, I am African. However, if one analyzes closely the way that I make my films, they are very Quebecois and they respond to Quebecois expectations and needs. I feel very Quebecois in my daily life.
Drawing from your triple identity, what do you feel is your role as filmmaker and perhaps more particularly as a woman in the cinema?
I think I can respond by using the example of the film I made called L'arret d'autobus, which was inspired by something that I actually experienced. For a period of time, I worked in the outskirts of Montreal in the suburbs where there were not many immigrants and people of different races, and people were very suspicious. However, at the same time, they were nice and I did not really have any problems.
However, at one point I was confronted with a woman with whom I was to work and who was straight out racist; to the point that she was ready to quit her job because she did not want to work with me because I was black. When I first arrived, though she had never seen nor met me before, she bluntly said, "I do not want to work with this woman." I quickly realized that I must not show a negative reaction. I must not get angry; although it is very frustrating and infuriating. On the contrary, I must go towards this person, because what has made her racist is ignorance. It was not a racism that had been generated by a hatred that is often times found in violent hate groups. It was based simply on ignorance. She was a woman who had never known black people, her only references was what she had seen in the media—which was a very false image—and she was afraid. Once she got to know me, as well as my family, she even came to me to say, "Really, I had no idea!"
At that moment I realized that it was important for us, who are perhaps the bridge between two races, to make an effort, because we are of mixed races, of mixed cultures, we understand the culture of the other. Often people are afraid because they do not know the other culture, and then they make mistakes and have negative reactions. It is up to us to make the bridge and go towards people who are afraid, because there is a great deal of fear in racism. We take up this role, those of us who are mixed-race.
So, do you feel that the role that you want to take on as a filmmaker is to bridge the gap, to mediate between cultures and races?
I think that what I like to be able to do as a filmmaker is to be able to have the freedom to choose my themes. I do not feel obligated to only focus on themes about racism, or themes about Africa, or themes about black people. I think it is important to be free to work according to our creative needs and to go towards the things that interest us. I am black; I live in an environment where I am in the minority. Of course, these are the themes that interest me, and surely they will reappear more often in my films than other things. I see myself, with difficulty, trying to make a film about China, even if it is interesting. I would have to go to live there in order to know more about it.
Your films are often without dialogue, which makes them more accessible to a variety of audiences, since there is not the problem of understanding another language and reading subtitles. Has this facilitated the distribution of your films in other countries?
They have been seen in other countries such as the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, and in many places in Africa, TV5 has bought them, and of course in Quebec.
Earlier you said that you attempt to bring a certain universality to your work. Do you feel that you have achieved this? What have been the responses in other countries?
Yes, I think there are themes that interest everyone, tenderness, love, tolerance, poetry. I think the only difference is in the way that each person transmits the message, but I think that there is a universal message.
What are some of the specifics in making an animation film? What are the technique and process that are used?
Animation requires a different approach to filmmaking. Initially we draw everything. It is not like conventional filmmaking where you tell an actor to cross the street, then the actor crosses and you shoot the action. In animation if I want my character to cross the street, I draw the action in twenty-four images per second to show him or her crossing the street.
It is a great deal of work, which means that the cost of filming is very expensive. It demands a lot of time and work and there are many people who work on it, and they must be paid. It is an artistic concept that is particularly thorough because one must envision the scene down to the smallest detail and create the costumes and the decor. Drawing the decor is not like composing images and then photographing them, or setting up a decor and then filming it. It must be entirely envisioned and designed. It is a different approach. An animation film is envisaged. The film is actually drawn.
As you stated, animation film is an expensive medium. I remember reading that it can cost more than US$7,000 per minute. How are you able to find funding? Does this limit you to only doing very short works?
SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles), a funding agency in Quebec and ONF, (Office national du film), financed my first film. My second film was self-financed, it was very short. A friend financed a part of it and I financed the other. The third was also financed by SODEC, and the fourth was financed in co-production with the Office national du film, and Ciné-com Production, the company of Burkinabé filmmaker Gaston Kaboré. Thus, it was a co-production between Canada and Burkina Faso.
Animation films are often viewed as films for children. Are children your targeted audience? Is your objective to make films for everybody, adults as well as children?
Yes, we are often the victims of a certain stereotype when doing animation films. Especially when they are presented in festivals where there are no animation films at all. Moreover, people often don't really know what animation is. Yet, many animation films are made for the general public or even for adults only. Oftentimes children don't really understand what is going on or they are not comfortable with what they are seeing. I think in the West there is not a large market for animation films for adults. However, we find in Asia that adults watch animation films just as much as they do other films. Personally, I like doing films for children. It does not bother me at all. I enjoy it very much and I find that I have much more freedom. Because for children we can do things very "fly" as we call it here in Montreal, with much fantasy and fun, where the filmmaker can really let herself go. One is not obliged to be too down-to-earth, and I like that, actually.
