FOUR FILMS ON AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS EXPERIENCE IN FRANCE (1966-1975).
African filmmakers have used filmmaking as a way to document the lives and environment around them. They have used this medium to portray their experiences and the stories they have encountered and seen.
Their lives abroad, especially in France for the most, were an eye-opening adventure in which they understood the complexities of being an African of black skin in a predominantly white country, in post-colonialism. Through short films and long pictures, they have established a method to eternalize and retransmit the ways of living and cultural clashes they came across in being away from their homeland. This selection of four films above translates in a natural language the immigrant experience of black Africans in the face of racism, injustice, and hope through the eyes and lenses of four different filmmakers.
1. "PARIS C'EST JOLI" (1974) by Inoussa Ousseini
Tells the story of an illegal immigrant who had a bad experience in his first day in France.
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2. "LES PRINCES NOIRES DE SAINT GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS" (1975) by Ben Diogaye Bèye
A satire about young African men arriving in the district of Saint Germain des Prés in Paris during the 70s.
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3. "LA NOIRE DE..." (1966) by Ousmane Sembène
Center around the story of diouana, a senegalese young woman who leave for France to work as a housekeeper for a white family but will quickly end up experiencing racial discrimination.
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4. "SOLEIL Ô" (1970) by Med Hondo
An educated native of Mauritania tries to find work in Paris but encounters difficulty because of his race.
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