Filmstill from I by Dieudo Hamadi, 2013
How can somebody become a filmmaker in a country without cinema? Saturday 31 March the young Congelese filmmaker Dieudo Hamadi received for his film Atalaku the Joris Ivens Award at the 35th Cinéma du réel Filmfestival in Centre Pompidou, Paris. The Joris Ivens Award is ment for debute or second films. Hamadi made his film in Kinshasa, a city of nine million inhabitants however without cinema. He filmed the presidential campaign in 2011, which was only the second free election since the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960. Gaylor, a penniless (like most of Kinshasa’s nine million inhabitants) pastor turns into an atalaku, which means a “crier” in Lingala. He makes a deal with the political candidate who has offered him the highest price for his services: ensuring the campaign’s street publicity and finding musicians to write the campaign’s song.
See for an interview with Diedo Hamadi: www.telerama.fr/cinema/dieudo-hamadi-realisateur-congolais-le-documentaire-est-la-forme-la-plus-compatible-avec-mon-environnement,95386.php
See for the website of Cinéma du réel: www.cinemadureel.org/en/