Gaston Kaboré is a Burkinabé

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

 film director and an important figure in Burkina Faso's film industry. He has won awards for his films Wend Kuuni

Wend Kuuni

Wend Kuuni is a 1983 Burkinabé drama film directed by Gaston Kaboré.-Plot:The movie starts out with a village leader coming into the house of a crying mother. He says to give up hope that your husband is still alive...

and Buud Yam

Buud Yam

Buud Yam is a 1997 Burkinabé historical drama film written and directed by Gaston Kaboré. As of 2001, it was the most popular African film ever in Burkina Faso.-Plot:...

.

Biography

Kaboré was born in 1951 in Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso

Bobo-Dioulasso is a city with a population of about 435,543 , the second largest city in Burkina Faso, Africa, after Ouagadougou, the nation's capital. The name means literally, "home of the Jula who speak Bobo," and is possibly a creation of the French who misunderstood the identity complexities...

 in Upper Volta

French Upper Volta

Upper Volta was a colony of French West Africaestablished on March 1, 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire...

.

He studied history at the Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, receiving his license

License

The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...

 and Maîtrise

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 (Master's) degrees. While researching the history of racial prejudice against Africa by its colonisers for his Maîtrise, Kaboré was drawn to contemporary documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

s which, he felt, continued to propagate such stereotypes. To better understand the "language of cinema", he decided to go to ESEC film school. Originally intending to use film as a medium for disseminating historical knowledge, he gradually grew passionate about film for its own sake. He received his degree in Film Production in 1976. He returned to his native country to be director of the Centre National du Cinéma. His film Wend Kuuni was only the second feature film produced in Burkina Faso. His work for the screen, focusing on his country’s rural heritage, has received numerous international awards, including a French César award

César Award

The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

.

In 1997 he won the first prize at the 15th Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou

The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou is the largest African film festival, held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The festival is the biggest regular cultural event on the African continent and it mostly focuses on the African film and African filmmakers...

 (FESPACO) with the film Buud Yam

Buud Yam

Buud Yam is a 1997 Burkinabé historical drama film written and directed by Gaston Kaboré. As of 2001, it was the most popular African film ever in Burkina Faso.-Plot:...

.

From 1985 to 1997 he was the ll as Secretary-General of Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers. Since 2005 he has had a training school, Imagine, in Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

 which trains professionals in the television and cinema industries.

Filmography

• Wend Kuuni
  Wend Kuuni
  Wend Kuuni is a 1983 Burkinabé drama film directed by Gaston Kaboré.-Plot:The movie starts out with a village leader coming into the house of a crying mother. He says to give up hope that your husband is still alive...
  
  (1982)
• Zan Boko (1988)
• Rabi (1992)
• Lumière and Company
  Lumière and Company
  Lumière and Company was a collaboration between 41 international film directors in which each made a short film using the original Cinématographe camera invented by the Lumière brothers....
  
  (1995)
• Buud Yam
  Buud Yam
  Buud Yam is a 1997 Burkinabé historical drama film written and directed by Gaston Kaboré. As of 2001, it was the most popular African film ever in Burkina Faso.-Plot:...
  
  (1997)

External links