The cinema of Gabon has had an uneven history. Though President

Omar Bongo El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo; 30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009) was a Gabonese politician who was the second President of Gabon for 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009. Omar Bongo was promoted to key positions as ...

and his wife, Josephine Bongo, encouraged filmmaking in the 1970s, there was a 20-year hiatus until filmmaking started to grow again in the new millennium.

History

French companies made documentaries in colonial Gabon from 1936 onwards. After independence,

Philippe Mory Philippe Mory was a Gabonese actor and director, born in 1935 and died on 7 June 2016 in Libreville, Gabon. He is known for acting in the film ''The Cage'', ''One Does Not Bury Sunday (1960)'' and directing ''Les tam-tams se sont tus (1972).'' ...

, Gabon's first professionally trained actor, organized the Compagnie Cinematographique du Gabon in 1962, and helped produce ''

The Cage The Cage may refer to: Sports * West Fourth Street Courts, also known as "The Cage", as of 1978, a public venue for amateur basketball in New York City * Al-Shorta Stadium, 1990-2014, former football stadium of Al-Shorta SC, nicknamed "The Cage ...

'', a feature film entered into the

1963 Cannes Film Festival The 16th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 23 May 1963. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Il Gattopardo'' by Luchino Visconti. The festival opened with '' The Birds'', directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Jury The following people were appointed as the ...

. The national television company supported films like Pierre-Marie Dong's ''Carrefour humain'' (1969) and Mory's ''Les tams-tams se sont tus'' (1972). Though Gabon had only eight cinemas, President

and his wife Joséphine Bongo took a direct personal interest in film. The President built a 400-seat cinema in his presidential palace, and in 1975 founded the Centre National Du Cinéma with Mory as director. He also founded a production company, Les Films Gabonais. Gabon saw nine films from six directors in the 1970s. Les Films Gabonais produced several films co-directed by Dong and based on the writings of the presidential couple: ''Obali'' (1976) and ''Ayouma'' (1977) were based on plays examining social themes by Joséphine Bongo, and ''Demain, un jour nouveau'' (1978) was a version of the president's memoirs. Another Gabonese film from this period was Charles Mensah's ''Ilombe'' (1978).

Contemporary cinema

After two decades of relative inactivity, Gabonese filmmaking started to rise again in the new millennium. Charles Mensah at the Centre National du Cinéma Gabonais (CENACI) had introduced new policies to restructure Gabonese cinema in the early 1990s.

Imunga Ivanga Imunga Ivanga (born 1967 in Libreville, Gabon) is a Gabonese filmmaker. He was born in 1967 in Libreville, Gabon. He studied at University of Libreville and has a masters in literature. Also, he speaks several languages like Mpongwe, French, En ...

started making short films in the 1990s, and his feature film ''Dôlè'' (2000) was the first Gabonese feature film for two decades. It won festival awards at

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. Henri-Joseph Koumba Bididi made a number of short films, and the 2001 feature film ''The Elephant's Balls''. Ivunga and Mory collaborated on ''L'Ombre de Liberty'' (2006), and in 2014 Ivunga was made general director of the national television network, Gabon Television. Amédée Pacôme Nkoulou's documentary ''

Boxing Libreville ''Boxing Libreville'' is a documentary film released in 2018 about the struggles and hardship a young Gabonese man, Christ, has in his journey to be a boxer and how it is mirrored in the struggle for democracy in the country. It is directed by ...

'' (2018) has won several awards. Canal Olympia is currently building new cinemas in Gabon.African cinema makes a comeback, but Hollywood gets top billing
''Arab News'', 1 November 2017.

References

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History

Contemporary cinema

References

Further reading