History of Cinema in BURUNDI
Historical overviewBurundi's first democratically elected president was assassinated in October 1993 after only four months in office. Since then, some 200,000 Burundians have perished in widespread, often intense ethnic violence between Hutu and Tutsi factions. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced or have become refugees in neighboring countries. Burundian troops, seeking to secure their borders, intervened in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998. More recently, many of these troops have been redeployed back to Burundi to deal with periodic upsurges in rebel activity. A new transitional government, inaugurated on 1 November 2001, was to be the first step towards holding national elections in three years. However, the unwillingness of the Hutu rebels to enact a cease fire with Bujumbura continues to obstruct prospects for a sustainable peace.
History of cinema from 1896-2000
Burundi has hardly any recorded cinematic history. This country has suffered tremendeously from wars and ethnic rebellion throughout the twentieth century. During the colonial period (Belgium) news and propaganda films were shown in theatres in the major cities. In 1980 Burundian Jean-Michel Hussi Nyamusimba produced the first Burundi film a French coproduction called Ni-Ni. In 1992 Burundi's first feature film, Gito l'Ingrat, was released, a Swiss French Burundi co-production directed by Leonce Ngabo. The film earned some international recognition by winning awards at the Montreal and FESPACO film festivals. He fled as a political refugee to Canada in 1995. He is currently working on his second feature film Le parfum de ciel. In the mid nineties the Collectif d'Enfants Burundais co-produced several 30-minute documentaries with Belgian Atelier Graphoui. Since then financial difficulty forced the closure of Burundi's only film production company. Nowadays Burundi still suffers from the ethnic wars and no films are currently in production.
Cinema links from BURUNDI
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Leon Ngabo |
Biographical page of the Burundi film director.
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