Dan Assayag comes from the world of advertising. He worked for several years in an agency as a creative director. In 2013, he made a documentary about Serge Beynaud, a renowned coupé décalé artist in Ivory Coast. He then made a documentary film about Stromae's African tour, which has not yet been released. One thing led to another, and he moved from advertising to filmmaking and was chosen by the Orange group to direct the series Y'Africa, which highlights the new African art scene.
Can you tell us about the Y'Africa project?
Y'Africa is a contraction of the expression "Africa Ya lelo": today's Africa in Lingala.
It's a series initiated by the Orange group on the new African scene. The concept is to meet artists working in various disciplines such as dance, painting, visual arts, music, fashion design, and cooking. Each episode highlights their career and their world in a spirit of exchange to give them a voice. As the director, I wanted the artists featured to be able to choose the filming locations in order to make the episodes more personal and intimate.
Throughout this series, there was a real desire for "participation" so that the artists could choose their own filming conditions. The production company in charge of the Y'Africa project is the Paris-based FAME Productions, which works regularly with the African continent.
Y'Africa comprises 13 episodes of 26 minutes each, with three portraits presented per episode, featuring artists from different countries. The series began airing on February 6 in Mali and will end on April 30, 2020, in 17 African countries. It will then be broadcast worldwide from summer 2020.
What are the Orange Group's ambitions for this project?
With a strong presence in Africa for several years now, the Orange Group wanted to use this series to broaden its brand spectrum. Today, brands cannot limit themselves to advertising their products or services; they must go further by expanding their scope of action. With a strong presence on the continent, this is also an opportunity for the group to go beyond the commercial sphere and become a cultural player. Artistically, I had complete freedom on this project, both in the choice of artists and in the way the subjects were approached. The Y'Africa project thus complements Orange's many initiatives to promote African culture.
You are involved in a growing number of projects on the continent. In your opinion, what are the prospects for African cinema?
From a general point of view, I think that the excitement and creative abundance that exist on this continent will enable African countries to demonstrate real dynamism in the film industry. They will bring a different perspective, one that is not shaped by Western standards and standardized production criteria. Despite the lack of resources, actors are finding ways to carry out their projects and continue to be entrepreneurial and innovative. One episode of the Y'Africa series profiles Senegalese rapper Nix, who, beyond his music, has developed a pan-African music streaming platform called Deedo.
One of the things that struck me during the making of this project was that when you are an artist in Africa, you are one for good reasons. You don't do it for money or fame, but more because it's a need, a necessity that takes hold of you. The artists I met have a very "pure" discourse, one that I believe enriches creativity on the continent. This is the common thread I chose to follow in highlighting these portraits.