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Women Visualizing Africa Film Series | Documentary: Les enfants du blanc (Children of the White Man)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012
5:00 AM
2435 North Quad 105 South State St.

Through the discovery of her family’s history, Sarah unveils the hidden history of these half demon/half god mixed-race children born from abused African mothers and, as it is written on their birth certificate, “legally unknown (white) fathers.” French w/ English subtitles. Sarah Bouyain was born in Reims (France) in 1968, the daughter of Edith Melkowski (French) a pediatrician doctor and Joseph Bouyain (Burkinabé) an international civil servant in UNESCO. Having originally studied mathematics, Bouyain later shifted her attention to cinematography. After studying the topic at the Louis Lumière School of Cinematography in France, she went on to work as a camera assistant for several films. She has worked on Idrissa Ouedraogo’s film Le cri du cœur and Afrique, mon Afrique and Henry Duparc’s film Couleur café. She also worked as a camera person on television set. She currently lives in Paris with her husband.
This film series highlights poetic images produced by African women filmmakers. Throughout Africa, women have emerged from the double oppression of patriarchy and colonialism. As producers, directors, actresses, scriptwriters, financiers, promoters, marketers and distributors of film, television, and video, they have become the unsung heroines of the moving image in postcolonial Africa. Unfortunately, these immense contributions by women are underrepresented, both in industry debates and in academic research. There are now many cases in which African women in front of and behind the camera lens have overcome social barriers, yet this is often overlooked. Organizers: Professor Frieda Ekotto (Afroamerican and African Studies and Comparative Literature) and Marie Stoll, PhD Candidate (Romance Languages and Literatures) Free and Open to the Public All of these films will be shown at 2435 North Quad (4-6 pm), 105 South State Street. A Q&A with the filmmakers will follow each film.