Wednesday,
October 27 at 7:00pm
International
House Special Event
African
Art, African Voices
Director
Ousmane Sembene in person presenting his new film, Moolaadé
 In
October, The Philadelphia Museum of Art opens a celebration
of African art and culture with an innovative exhibition of
more than 150 works of contemporary and traditional art from
Africa. We are proud to partner with the PMA in bringing dance
troupes, artists and films to University City as part of their
city wide African Art, African Voices exhibition and are deeply
honored to welcome Ousmane Sembene to International House to
open our program.
The
foremost figure in the evolution of African cinema, Ousmane
Sembene remains, at eighty-one, its most provocative and fiercely
independent spirit. Hailing from the former French colony of
Senegal, Sembene established himself as one of Africa’s leading
novelists before turning to cinema as a means of reaching a
wider audience. His work often centers on identity problems
encountered by Africans caught between Africa and Europe, tradition
and modernization. We are pleased to present the Philadelphia
premiere of Ousmane Sembene’s latest work, Moolaadé,
which tackles the question of women’s lives in Africa today.
Sembene’s mature masterpieces confirm that no filmmaker is a
sharper critic of the internal problems
of
modern Africa nor a more passionate advocate of African pride
and autonomy.
Winner
of the Un certain regard prize at this year's Cannes
Film Festival, Moolaadé
is Sembene’s second film in a proposed trilogy on the
changing role of women in modern African society. Shot in a
country village built around one of West Africa's oldest mosques,
where the women rise up against the male elders to protect several
young girls who, according to the sacred ritual of purification,
must undergo circumcision. The heroine of the film, Colle Gallo
Ardo Sy, is a woman who after being circumcised, lost two children
at birth and whose only daughter was delivered by caesarian
section. When Colle refuses to have her own daughter mutilated,
the village is thrown into turmoil when two value systems come
head to head: the right to asylum and the ancient tradition
of female circumcision.
Please
click here
for Tasuma, the Fighter, the next film in the
African Art, African Voices series.
Please
click here
for more films screening at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
This
program has been supported in part by the Pennsylvania Humanities
Council, the Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment
for the Humanities. 
We
thank Cinema
Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for support
of this program.
$10.00
General Admission; $8.00 I House Members, Students and Seniors.
Available
in advance at TICKETWEB
or one hour before showtime at the International House
Box Office.
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