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Forging a New Path: Plurality, Social Change, and Innovation in Contemporary Senegalese Cinema

2018; Indiana University Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2979/blackcamera.9.2.21

1947-4237

Molly Krueger Enz, Devin Bryson,

Cultural Identity and Heritage

Forging a New Path: Plurality, Social Change, and Innovation in Contemporary Senegalese Cinema Molly Krueger Enz (bio) and Devin Bryson (bio) To see a movie in a theater in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, one must be ready for a certain amount of whiplash in negotiating among the few choices. On one hand, a cinephile could choose the Sea Plaza cinema, located along the Atlantic coast next to the posh Radisson Blu hotel. It attracts mostly expats, as evidenced by the blockbuster Hollywood hit Star Wars: The Force Awakens that marked its opening on December 25, 2015.1 In August 2017, the selections were primarily American and shown in versions dubbed in French. They included the animated films Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3; the action films The Dark Tower, Atomic Blonde, and The Hitman’s Bodyguard (with the latter two featuring several showings of French-subtitled versions); and the thriller Annabelle: Creation. In the same vein as Sea Plaza, a new theater named Canal Olympia La Téranga opened its doors on May 11, 2017, with an inauguration that included a visit by President Macky Sall. It is located next to the Grand National Theater and features three hundred seats with modern projection and digital sound capability.2 On the other hand, if a viewer prefers to visit a theater that caters more to the tastes of typical Dakarois, an adventurous navigation of obscurantism must be faced. Not well publicized or identified, these film houses serve an in-the-know clientele and possess limited resources. Moving away from the Sea Plaza and heading south on the corniche, the thoroughfare that stretches along the Atlantic coast of the city, one can turn into the medina, the bustling heart of Dakar, and eventually find the Bada-Ciné in the Gueule Tapée neighborhood. Up a narrow, twisting staircase, one enters into a room where piles of neglected video cassettes are stacked against the walls. Then, through a curtain is found the projection room, which contains a few small rows of battered theater seats. On a visit in June 2016, there was one moviegoer. In the Dakar suburb of Pikine, the Ciné Awa is less hidden than Bada-Ciné and seemingly more popular. While we stood in front of the [End Page 333] theater talking to its manager, a good number of young men were milling around us, listening in on our conversation, many of them buying tickets to enter. However, after leaving the theater without entering, our Senegalese friend from Pikine who accompanied us mentioned that the cinema is a well-known location for crime and drugs, with many of the young men going in to participate in these activities instead of staring up at the screen. He suspected that those who were apparently invested in eavesdropping on our conversation about the current state of Senegalese cinema were more likely examining us as possible robbery targets. Given the dilapidated, neglected, even dangerous conditions of these theaters, it may be surprising that they were recently targeted for improvements by the Senegalese government. In May 2014, the Minister of Culture, Abdoul Aziz Mbaye, announced that 11.5 million FCFA would be dedicated to the rehabilitation of four movie theaters in the capital city of Dakar. The theaters selected for renovation included the aforementioned Awa in Pikine and Bada-Ciné in Gueule Tapée, as well as Christa in Grand Yoff and Médina in Tilène. Mbaye stated: “It was an effort that we made so that the movie theaters revive themselves. After that, it is necessary to help the theaters acquire new technologies. However, this will be in the context of a public-private partnership.”3 Mbaye posits that Senegalese films are popular among local viewers and that whenever one is shown, the theater is full. Although this may be true, his view does not seem to be shared by the owner of Christa Cinema, Malick Aw. In an interview with Jeune Afrique, Aw argues that the local population is not interested in art or philosophical films. “These people come to the cinema to escape, not to be confronted with their reality or to feel sorry for themselves.”4 Thus, he...