FESPACO!

I didn't really want to come to Ouaga, but in retrospect that was silly. The break from teaching has been wonderful and I've gained new perspective. Being stressed is not healthy. You'd think I would have learned that lesson well from grad school!

I've only been in Ouaga three days. FESPACO is going on and I've manage to watch 2 movies, buy pagnes and get some work done. I wasn't sure what to expect from the African film festival, however based on my limited Seattle film festival experience I think it was fairly normal. People watch movies, directors and actors are present, some are well produced others a bit raw and most very interesting.

The two movies I saw: "Une vie brisée" ("A Broken Life") - directed by Jude Ntsimenkou from Cameroon and "Whatever Lola Wants" - directed by Nabil Ayouch from Morocco. Both were very good and quite different.

"Une vie brisée" told the story of an african man beaten to death by the brother of an arab woman because he had dated her. The movie theater was outdoors. A cross between the Santa Fe opera house (without the padded seats, nice lighting and good speakers) and a drive in movie theater (without motorized vehicles, but with the obnoxious talking people and the scratchy speakers).

"Whatever Lola Wants" was a fantastic movie about belly dancing and yes the title has something to do with the song. :) It is Moroccan, but the story takes place in the US and Egypt. I just found out it was released in Dubai in 2007. The theater for this one was comfortable, your typical American theater with nice seats and air conditioning. In place of a consession stand though was a bar.

This now puts me at having watched 3 movies in Burkina. The first was a dubbed Clint Eastwood film on Chritmas Eve in Ouahigouya. Mostly I remember that one being cold. :)