AFRIQUE 50, France's first anticolonialist film, was banned by the censorship board, yet has recently been awarded a prize by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. On its completion, this biting pamphlet against French colonialism in black Africa earned its author thirteen indictments and a year's prison sentence. In the post-war period of European reconstruction, France wanted to show her colonies in the best possible light and promoted the image of the Republic leading her child-like pupils with a maternal hand to the light of reason and progress. Not everybody, however, subscribed to this vision.

AFRIQUE 50 is the first French anti-colonialist Film. It started out as an assignment requested by the French League of Schooling to show their students the educational mission carried out in the French colonies of West Africa. Once there, the director, who was only 21 years old, decided to film the truth: Lack of teachers and doctors, the crimes committed by the French Army in the name of France, the instrumentalization of the colonized peoples…

The film was forbidden during 40 years and René Vautier was incarcerated for several months.

by René Vautier - France

Doc | France | 17'

French colonialism: Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali.


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2007 | États Généraux du Film Documentaire | LUSSAS, France | August 19 > 25, 2007
> Selection (Africa)