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Burkina Faso: Preserving Idrissa Ouedraogo's legacy in filmmaking

Burkina Faso: Preserving Idrissa Ouedraogo's legacy in filmmaking

Two weeks after his death, young filmmakers in Burkina Faso want to keep the work of Idrissa Ouedraogo alive. One of his projects was Boukary Koutou, a fiction film dedicated to the resistance led by King Mossi against the French colonization. And members of his team are determined to keep his work going.

Gervais Kwéné is a movie producer: “The greatest tribute we can give to Idrissa Ouedraogo is to finish his Boukary Koutou project. It was important to him. On january 5 he came and told me that this project had to be realized. He told me, “produce Boukary Koutou for me so that I can go tell my elder Sembène Ousmane that we could not do Samory Toure but, we made Boukary Koutou.”

For this young filmmakers to realize Bourkary Koutou they will have to try to stick to the film maestros philosophy. In this film school, everyone has learned his film making techniques.

“If he walks into a room to teach me I will not learn much. But already by talking to
him you learn a lot because in that short moment sitting down with him he teases you, he gives you hints. When he was writing Boukary Koutou script, he gave me a sequence to develop a story to see how I write. When I wrote he noticed that I wrote in somewhat literary terms and he told me in scenario what are the actions. Do not say literary things. It must be said subject, verb complement,” says Riyanata Zara Ilboudo, a film student.

Honoring Idrissa Ouedraogo wont be a simple matter of trying to reproduce his work, because the legendary director would not appreciate that.

Freddy Denaës a Producer and a film distributor says: “In what Idrissa expressed, everyone found and finds his ways and hois way of doing things interesting. He noticed among young filmmakers those who had great ideas, an individual look at them, not the look of Idrissa Ouedraogo, but their look own look.”

His personality, character, and above all a film carrying a powerful message is what made him a good filmmaker. He will be remembered for generations.

The curtains might have fallen on Idrissa Ouedrago, but the cameras will not stop rolling. He will continue to live. And in the capital of African cinema, the maestro is more than a monument.

IMAGE COURTESY: http://people.bfmtv.com

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