Burkinabè Rising (also Burkinabé Rising): the art of resistance in Burkina Faso is a 2018 long documentary film directed and produced by Iara Lee.
Production
The documentary was produced by Cultures of Resistance films, in Burkina Faso, Bulgaria and United States in English, French and Mooré and lasts 72 minutes.
Plot/Synopsis
The documentary displays nonviolent atists and citizens of Burkina Faso pave way in an engaged manner, for a new day in the politics of their nation. Hemce, showing an example worthy of emulation to the continent of Africa and the whole world. The film features a people with a revolutionary spirit akin to that of its former leader (1983-1987), Thomas Sankara, killed in a coup d'etat by a friend of his and successor, Blaise Compaoré, by way of music, film, ecology, visual art and architecture. Compaoré who ruled for 27 years afterwards in October 2014 got removed by a great popular insurrection, with the spirit remaining with the people even yet.
Travelling across the country to film the documentary, BURKINABÈ RISING: the art of resistance in Burkina Faso, its director, Iara Lee mets an interesting set of cast of artists, musicians and activists, bent at promoting the culture of the through the arts for which the country is known for. The rapper, Joey le Soldat, makes references to the struggles of the impoverished youth in Ouagadougou and of the toiling farmers in the country side; the graffiti artist, Marto, decries injustice by giving colourful mural designs to the city walls; the women's rights activist, Malika la Slameuse, from a feminist perspective on a male-dominated art form performs poetry; the dancer, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, from his dance movement encourages his viewers to take political action.
The film also documents a festival of recycled art and interviews farmer groups resisting the encroachment of corporate agriculture. Im total, the film expresses different individuals in different walks of life search for peace and justice by means of cultural expression.
Cast
Le Balai Citoyen
Serge Bayala
Bouda Blandine
Konaté Bomavé
Séré Boukson
Aimé Césa
Raissa Compaoré
Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Sophie Garcia
Emmanuel Ilboudo
Hado Ima
Jean-Marie Koalga
Sahab Koanda
Jean-Robert Koudogbo Kiki
Souleymane Ladji Koné
Bil Aka Kora
Sanou Lagassane
Benjamin Lebrave
Ki Léonce
Mabiisi
Marto
Alif Naaba
Bend Naaba
Arnaud Ouambatou
Mohamed Ouedraogo
Qu'on Sonne et Voix-Ailes
Blandine Sankara
Odile Sankara
Salia Sanou
Sophie Sedgho
Malika La Slameuse
Smockey
Snake
Joey Le Soldat
Fatou Souratie
Ali Tapsoba
Gualbert Thiombiano
Issa Tiendrébéodo
Ousmane Tiendrébéodo
Gidéon Vink
Onasis Wendker
Blandine Yameogo
Amina Yanogo
Reception
The film was screened by Suns Cinema, Washington DC in collaboration with Cultures of Resistance on October 16, 2018. It was also screened at the Sembène Film Festival on March 25, 2019.
The film was awarded the Best Documentary Film award and got nominations for Best Original Score and Outstanding Woman Director awards at the New York City's 7th annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival (WFAIFF) in 2018.