Saturday, March 7, 2009

Pan-African Flim Festival

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - The day after Nadege Batou's first solo documentary premiered, national authorities in her home country the Republic of Congo banned it.

"It's about a taboo topic," said Batou of 'Ku Nkelo, a la recherche de l'eau' (To the source, in search of water), which focused on the nation's water problems.

"We don't lack money in Congo and we have a big river, but the poor have nothing to drink."

Batou, 30, said she was called in by government officials and told never to show her 26-minute reportage again, but it is one of hundreds of films on show at this year's 40th anniversary pan-African FESPACO film festival.

"It's not money that counts; it's showing it ... That's why coming to FESPACO was so important," she said.

Several screenings at Africa's top film festival take a critical look at the continent, from documentaries about state terror in Cameroon and Morocco, wrongful imprisonment in Ivory Coast, villagers forced to shift to make way for plantations in Burkina Faso, and feature films that dramatise injustice

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