In 1952, Ousmane Sembene, a dockworker and fifth-grade dropout from Senegal, began dreaming an impossible dream: to become the storyteller for a new Africa. This unbelievable true story of the father of African cinema follows a self- taught novelist and filmmaker who fought, against enormous odds, a 50-year battle to return African stories to Africans. A true-life epic, SEMBENE! follows an ordinary man who transforms himself into a fearless spokesperson for the marginalized, becoming a hero to millions before suffering a startling fall from grace. Can Sembene reinvent himself once more? A top ten film of 2015, New York Magazine. (dir. Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman, US, 2015, 89 min.)
“Endlessly fascinating … an enormously moving portrait of the profound way that art can transform those who come in contact with it.” –New York Magazine
This documentary was made by Upstate Films’ co-director, Jason Silverman, who has been instrumental in the restoration of Sembene’s films and is currently writing Sembene’s biography.
Close Up Discussion with
Samba Gadjigo is the Helen Day Gould Professor of French in Mount Holyoke College, and the recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Sundance Institute and Google. His books include Ousmane Sembene: Making of a Militant Artist. He directed the award-winning documentary Sembene! along with …Jason Silverman, who has been instrumental in the restoration of Sembene’s films, and is the co-executive director of Upstate Films.
Upstate Films programs are made possible with funds from the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid Hudson, Dutchess Tourism and by Dutchess County Community Grants Fund of the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley.
The Revival House series is presented by Ruge’s Auto Group. It is also generously underwritten by the Ettinger Foundation, Ray Nimrod, Patricia Alofsin, and Erik Stangvik.
The Acts of Resistance series is generously underwritten by Bushwhack Books, publisher of Crossing Divides by Vernon Benjamin, in support of Indivisible Saugerties.