RFI launches new podcasts in partnership with the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français to meet the pioneers of African cinema.
Through interviews, rare archives, and restored film clips, these podcasts highlight the journeys of pioneering filmmakers who combined boldness, commitment, and cultural roots.
Each episode, narrated by a personality from the world of culture, media, or sports, reveals how African cinema continues, yesterday as today, to shed light on reality and inspire the future.
The first episodes are already available on rfi.fr, the RFI Pure Radio app, and streaming platforms.
Episode 1: Tabataba, or the sounds of a forgotten revolt
Tabataba, directed in 1988 by Raymond Rajaonarivelo, is the first Malagasy feature film to be selected for Cannes. It recounts the Malagasy uprising of 1947, a popular revolt violently suppressed by the French colonial administration, long erased from official memory. Narrated by Gad Bensalem, winner of the 2024 RFI Theater Prize, this episode revisits this pioneering work by combining sound archives, film excerpts, and exclusive interviews with director Raymond Rajaonarivelo and Franco-Malagasy author Marie Ranjanoro. Together, they explore the power of fiction as a tool for transmission and resistance in the face of historical silence.
Episode 2: Kinshasa, or the good life of Mweze Ngangura
La Vie est belle, co-directed by Mweze Ngangura and Benoit Lamy in 1987, is an iconic film of Zairean cinema from the 1980s. Through the story of Kourou, a young musician who comes to try his luck in Kinshasa, the film captures the excitement of a capital city bursting with energy, where resourcefulness and music set the pace of daily life. Narrated by Gaël Kamilindi, a member of the Comédie-Française, this episode revisits this pioneering work, combining sound archives, film clips, and exclusive interviews with director Mweze Ngangura and filmmaker and photographer David-Pierre Fila. Together, they retrace the history of a cult film that blends music and fiction to recount the hopes and struggles of a society in the throes of change.
Four more episodes are coming soon, devoted in particular to Djibril Diop Mambéty, Sarah Maldoror, and Cheik Doukouré.