OPEN DOORS LOCARNO


empty building is like a ghost haunt- ing the town,” says Lelong. Cinédoc has already secured sup-


port from Rhone-Alps region and recently signed a co-production deal with Montreal-based Films de l’Oeil and has had interest from European broadcasters.


Fire Next Time Senegal


Dir Mati Diop Prod Les Films du Bal


Set in Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, actress-director Mati Diop’s Fire Next Time (La Prochaine Fois, Le Feu) follows trainee hairdresser Adel whose party lifestyle stops abruptly when her family decides to marry her off. “We want the fi lm to show Dakar


into the fi lm, which is budgeted at $210,000 (¤170,000). “Douada is a young director I


have been following for some time. I agree with his vision of things in Mali,” says Cissé. “The fi lm will illus- trate the situation we are in today and the problems we face.” He adds that the fi lm will shoot as


quickly as possible due to Tuareg/ Islamic unrest in the country.


Faso Fani, The End


Of The Dream Burkina Faso


Dir Michel K Zongo Prod Cinédoc Films


Burkinabe director Michel K Zongo emerged onto the international festi- val circuit this year with Espoir Voy- age, exploring the fate of migrant workers through the tale of Zongo’s brother who disappeared while working in neighbouring Ivory Coast. The feature-length documen- tary premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum section earlier this year before heading to Canada’s Hot Docs and the Cinéma du Réel in France. The impact of unemployment in


the West African state of Burkina www.screendaily.com


as it has never been shown before, capturing the lives of a younger gen- eration that is caught between modernity and tradition,” says pro- ducer Judith Lou Levy of Paris- based Les Films du Bal, who will present the project publicly for the fi rst time at Open Doors. Fire Next Time will be the debut


Michel K Zongo


Faso takes centre stage once again in Zongo’s second feature-length docu- mentary Faso Fani, The End Of The Dream (Faso Fani, La Fin Du Reve), exploring what happened to his hometown of Koudougou after a major employer, the Faso Fani tex- tile factory, shut down in 2001. “Michel lives in Koudougou. He’s


a real African fi lm-maker. He’s never lived in Europe. He thinks it’s important to remain in Africa… It’s almost a political choice for him,” says producer Christian Lelong of Cinédoc Films, which is based in Annecy, France. Zongo plans to cut intimate con-


temporary portraits of former work- ers with archive footage from the time of the company’s closure. “The factory still exists; some of the machinery is still intact. The


feature for Franco-Senegalese Diop, who is best known internationally for her performances in Claire Denis’ 35 Shots Of Rum and more recently Antonio Campos’ Simon Killer. Diop has made four shorts to date including Atlantiques and Big In Vietnam, which won Tiger Awards at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2010 and 2012, respectively. Fire Next Time is a spin-off from


Atlantiques, about a group of Sen- egalese teenagers who set off across the sea in small boats called pirogues in search of a better life. “It was this fi lm which made me


want to work with Mati. I found the mix of myth and real-life issues in


the story extremely powerful,” explains Levy. “Our goal is to make a powerful drama that refl ects the dif- ficult economic reality but is a proper fi ction.” Levy and Diop plan to shoot the


fi lm next year in the capital using a predominantly Senegalese crew.


From Street To School Senegal


Dir Pape Tall Prod Les Films de l’Atelier


Pape Tall’s documentary project From Street To School (De La Rue A l’Ecole) grew out of his social work with children on the streets of the Senegalese capital, Dakar. The project charts the struggles of


a group of impoverished teenage girls, who act as guides for blind rel- atives, to receive an education and change the course of their lives. “I have been working with the subjects as a social worker since 2005 but only started fi lming them in 2009,” explains Tall. “I thought the story of these street girls who try to go to school was a very strong story. I also like the fact it is optimis- tic — it gives reason for hope in a dif- fi cult situation.” Tall and producer Gora Seck of


Dakar-based Les Films de l’Atelier have already made a 52-minute doc- umentary about the girls, Mame Diarra Et Compagnie, following their efforts to go to school. The pair would now like to make


a feature-length documentary to cover what has since happened to the girls. “Two have continued with their


studies. One has dropped out and a fourth was badly burnt in a cooking accident and was unable to attend school this year,” says Tall, who con- tinues to monitor the girls’ progress in his role as a social worker.


Mati Diop


Pape Tall August 2012 Screen International 5 n


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