Burkina Faso 8600 km
2010 · 49m · Documentary
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Land of Upright People
2023
October 2014. Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, is the scene of an unarmed uprising that ousts the dictator in power since 1987 and later staves off an attempted coup. In 2015, the country votes freely for the first time in its history, yet real change remains allusive, especially regarding ongoing economic exploitation by foreign companies. In one year of struggle and resistance, the film follows the daily life of four Burkinabes: a musician and leader of the revolution, a local political candidate, a miner engaged in the labor movement, and an impoverished mother, all sharing hopes that the elections will change the country’s path.
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Sankara's Orphans
2023
Thomas Sankara came to power in Burkina Faso in 1983, with the promise of a revolutionary government that would transform the West African country. To help build the revolution, he sent 600 children — many orphans from rural areas — to be educated in Cuba. But after Sankara’s assassination, the children were stranded. The last would only return to Burkina Faso in 2005. SANKARA’S ORPHANS tells their stories through interviews with some of the 600, along with archival footage of their lives on Cuba’s Isle of Youth — where both Sankara and Fidel Castro came to visit. Along with their education, the children worked in the fields and received weapons training. This, combined with their idealism, frightened the new Burkina Faso regime, which worried they might return and take up arms.
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The Man of the Trees
2018
The life story of Daniel Balimá, a horticulturist with a disability in Burkina Faso.
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Tales of Sand and Snow
2004
In a quest to rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, an African filmmaker from the Gourmantche tribe of Burkina Faso visits an Aboriginal band, the Atikamekw of northern Quebec. The resulting documentary is a dialogue between those who divine the future in the sand with those who use snow-encased sweat lodges to reconnect with the spiritual world.
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World Music Discoveries: Drums and Djembes of Burkina Faso
2004
In the African nation of Burkina Faso, drums such as the djembe are more than a simple instrument; they have long been used for communication and storytelling as well as musical accompaniment, as this fascinating documentary illustrates. Explore the role the drum has played in Burkina Faso's history, and how the current generations' quest to move away from tradition threatens this time-honored instrument of oral history.
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Ouaga Girls
2017 · ★ 6.8
A group of young women from Ouagadougou study at a girl school to become auto mechanics. The classmates become their port of safety, joy and sisterhood, all while they are going through the life changing transition into becoming adults in a country boiling with political changes. In a country with youth unemployment at 52 percent, jobs are a hot issue. The young girls at a mechanics school in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou are right in the middle of a crucial point in life when their dreams, hopes and courage are confronted with opinions, fears and society’s expectations of what a woman should be. Using interesting narrative solutions, Theresa Traore Dahlberg depicts their last school years and at the same time succeeds in showing the country’s violent past and present. This is a feature-film debut and coming-of-age film with much warmth, laughs, heartbreak and depth.
More info →Crackle of Time: Christoph Schlingensief and his Opera Village in Burkina Faso
2012 · ★ 7
Documentary about filmmaker, author, director, and performance artist Christoph Schlingensief and his last major project, building an opera village in Burkina Faso. What was initially planned as a festival theater soon developed into a more ambitious idea, and in addition to the theater, a school, a hospital, and living quarters for teachers and nursing staff were also planned. Beginning with the search for a suitable building site, the film also recounts the difficulties encountered during the work and Schlingensief's advancing cancer.
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Ouagadougou – portraits de dieux
1992
Ouagadougou – Portraits of Gods (1992) explores contemporary Burkina Faso through the intertwined journeys of two Burkinabè men and a Belgian painter. As Christianity, Islam, and ancestral beliefs coexist in everyday life, the film reveals how the sacred is woven into ordinary existence. Blending intimate observation with visual portraiture, Benoît Lamy offers a poetic reflection on identity, spirituality, and the invisible forces that shape human lives.
More info →African Art in Performance: The Winiama Masks of the Village of Ouri, Burkina Faso
2006
African masks in performance: The spectacular masks of the Winiama people in the rural village of Ouri, in Burkina Faso, perform to reenact the encounters between the village ancestors and the spirits of the wilderness. This video emphasizes performance. There are lots of long takes of individual mask's performances from start to finish, with musical accompaniment, crowd reaction. Professor Roy has taught African art history at the University of Iowa for thirty years, and he has been doing research in Burkina Faso for thirty-seven years. He recently published The Land of Flying Masks: Art and Culture of Burkina Faso (Munich: Prestel, 2007).
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Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man
2006 · ★ 8.4
Thomas Sankara, former president of Burkina Faso, was known as "the African Che", and became famous in Africa due to his innovative ideas, his devastating humor, his spirit and his altruism. More than a classic biography, this film sheds light on the impact that this man and his politic made on Burkina Faso and Africa in general.
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