2007年VOA标准英语-Largest African Film Festival Attracts Internat

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
03 March 2007

Africa's largest film festival closes tonight in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Pan African Film and Television festival, known as FESPACO, showed films from more than 40 countries, including a growing selection¹ of films made by non-Africans. Phuong Tran has more from VOA's West Africa Bureau in Dakar on how some of these filmmakers are finding their way into African cinema. Additional reporting was done by Zoumana Wonogo in Ouagadougou.

People look at FESPACO festival movie posters, 28 Feb 2007

Swedish filmmaker Eva Nilsson's film La Route de Mama Toubab traces her journey as a European woman through four West African countries.

"I got the idea of making the film last FESPACO 2005," she said.  "I wanted to come back and have my own film here. I want to make the audience understand why people like me come back to this part of the world."

Nilsson says no matter how close she became to the people in her film, she was still the outsider, or "Toubab," a word for foreigners in West and Central Africa.

French film critic Jean Roy says as more international filmmakers become interested in Africa, the reaction from African filmmakers has been mixed.

"Sometimes African filmmakers should do these kinds of subjects themselves, but they do not have the money," he said.  "They do not really appreciate that some other people get involved in their stories even if it brings money in the country."

However, Roy says there is a need for more films about Africa, no matter who makes them.

Among the 32 films by non-Africans chosen for special viewing, French filmmakers lead the group with 10 films. Roy says France offers financial help to its filmmakers who make films about Africa.

"From a cultural point of view, it is not that they [the French government] think the film will recover the [cost]," he added.  "It is that they think that France should have this kind of policy of protecting and helping² culture in Africa, because we have a common past.  We have colonized³ these countries."

Ardiouma Soma is the chairman of the FESPACO selection committee who helped select this year's non-African produced films.

Soma says an international film is chosen either because committee members discover it, or because another film festival recommends it. Filmmakers can also submit their films directly to the committee.

After each festival, Soma says the committee searches for new films still in production. Some of these films are chosen even before completion to be included in the next FESPACO festival, held every two years.

The selection committee chair says only African filmmakers can compete in the six competition categories with cash prizes.

However, Soma says this does not discourage non-African filmmakers from trying to enter their films into the festival.

Soma says what is most important about FESPACO is not its cash prizes, the biggest of which is $20,000, small by festival standards. He says FESPACO is a center of communication in the film world and other countries want to be a part of that dialogue to promote their films.

Some non-African produced feature films showed a barge's trip down the Congo River, an Afro-Uruguayan street child, teenagers seeking asylum⁴ in England, African religions in Brazil, and corruption⁵ in Sierra Leone's diamond mining sector⁶.

1 selection   

n.选择，挑选，精选品，可选择的东西

参考例句：

• We left the selection of the team to the captain.我们把挑选队员的工作交给了队长。
• The shop has a fine selection of cheeses.那家商店有各种精美乳酪可供选购。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

4 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

5 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。