If Trees Could Talk

If Trees Could Talk (Si les arbres pouvaient parler)
Genre : Drama
Type : Documentary
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2018
Format : Short
Running time : 43 (in minutes)
http://alliedproductions.org/july-7-if-trees-could-talk-bara-diokhane/

IF TREES COULD TALK is a 43 min documentary about Senegalese painter, sculptor, poet, playwright, philosopher, actor, art critic Issa Samb aka Jo Ouakam.
Issa Samb started his artistic journey in 1970, a couple of years after he got arrested and beaten by the Senegalese police forces during the 1968 student riots in Dakar. He advocated then, the theories of the International Situationist movement.
In 1974 he co-founded Laboratoire Agit-Art, The seminal art collective that had kept an alternative artistic expression relevant in Senegal, with filmmaker Djibril Mambeti DIop, playwright Youssoupha John. journalist Mame Less Dia, etc.
An enigmatic and recognizable feature of city of Dakar, his nickname Ouakam refers to the name of his native neighborhood.
In 1992, he made his acting debut in "Hyenas", directed by Djibril Mambeti Diop, the first Senegalese film to be nominated at a Cannes Film festival official selection.
In 2012 he was selected at the prestigious Documenta Kassel.
Samb comments that his work lies" at the border of fiction and imagination, and "therefore is beyond reality", in this documentary.
The director, Bara Diokhané, Samb's close friend, began filming in 2010 and recorded the prolific artist's performances for seven years, capturing the thought and process that go into the creations of one Africa's greatest gifts to arts and humanities, while also reflecting on the history of art, the environment and the culture.
The release of IF TREES COULD TALK (in 2018) marks the 4th month since the 72 year old African art Shaman passed away.

A film by Bara DIOKHANÉ

Senegal / USA, 2018, documentary, 43 mins

starring Issa Samb

Producer: Bara Diokhané

Director: Bara Diokhané
Screenwriter: Bara Diokhané
Editor: Fatos Marishta

PUBLIC STATEMENT
Issa Samb had been my friend for decades, and I always thought it was difficult, if not impossible, to let him see himself as he was, to make his creative energy felt, to allow spectators to enter his world, especially because he himself prevented it by playing characters, as if to hide himself. To achieve this, he had to be filmed over many years, in intimacy, without an audience, without representation. Bara Diokhane did it. The film is so faithful that it looks like a self-portrait in the manner of Agit'Art, an assemblage, a creation by Issa aka Joe. Image, sound, montage, it's him. Congratulations to Bara Diokhane, for being his double.
Irene Lichtenstein, filmmaker (on Vimeo)

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of