November 3, 1994: Vol26n9: CHOICES: Pioneering African filmmaker will present work

Pioneering African filmmaker will present work at UB Nov. 7, 8
Ousmane Sembene, the internationally celebrated novelist and filmmaker
considered by many to be the father of sub-Saharan African cinema,
will screen two of his films at UB Nov. 7 and 8. 
	The films will be shown in the Screening Room (room 112) of
the Center for the Arts on UB's North Campus. Each will be followed by
a discussion led by the filmmaker. Both events are free of charge and
open to the public. A public reception for Sembene will take place
Nov. 9 from noon to 2 p.m. in 830 Clemens Hall.
	"Xala," a 1973 film based on Sembene's anti-bourgeois novel of
the same name, will be shown at 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7. "Xala" is a
story of the punishment of greed, selfishness, vanity and waste, a
popular theme in traditional African stories. Here the filmmaker
employs it to target Senegal's post-colonial middle class, depicted as
guilty of nepotism, corruption and mismanagement of the economy.
	"Guelwaar," his stunning 1992 film mirroring Senegal's
fractious religious conflicts, will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday,
Nov. 8. The story revolves around the consequences that ensue when the
corpses of a prominent Muslim and a prominent Catholic are
accidentally switched in the morgue. 
	Lockwood Library has mounted a literary exhibition of work by
and about Ousmane in the second floor exhibition area. Curated by
librarian Dorothy Woodson, it will continue through Nov. 9.
	Sembene's unblinking portraits of his native Senegal have made
him one of the most popular artists in Africa. His works, a far cry
from the "Tarzanic" films of African life with which Western audiences
are so familiar, have received international recognition as reflectors
of African cultures grappling with the demands of independence and
modernization that followed the colonial era.