Directors/Producers: Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman
Description:
Meet Ousmane Sembene, the African freedom fighter who used stories as his weapon. Sembene! tells the story of the Sembene, the father of African cinema, taking you from Dakar, Senegal to the docks of Marseille, France to New York City in a career that spanned forty years and resulted in films shocking the sociopolitical power structures of the day.
Biography: Samba Gadjigo, the director of the documentary Making of Moolaade, is the world’s foremost expert on the life and work of Ousmane Sembéne and author of Sembéne’s official biography. He was born and raised in Senegal and is professor of african studies and french at Mt. Holyoke College.
Jason Silverman is an award-winning film producer (Olympia, opening night film, SXSW; closing night film, Slamdance; Sundance Channel; Shameless, Best Film, Great Plains Film Festival) and longtime festival director. He has produced large-scale events for the Smithsonian, the Lensic Center for the Arts, the Tribeca Film Festival and the Lannan Foundation. He is currently cinematheque director at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, and former artistic director of the Taos Talking Picture Festival.
