Sana Na N’Hada (born 1950) is a filmmaker from Guinea Bissau, "the first filmmaker from Guinea-Bissau".Fernando Arenas
The Filmography of Guinea-Bissau’s Sana Na N’Hada: From the Return of Amílcar Cabral to the Threat of Global Drug Trafficking
''Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies'', Vol 30/31, 2017.

Life

Sana Na N’Hada was born in 1950 in Enxalé. Though his father wanted him to work on the land, he attended a Franciscan primary school for 'indigenous' students and encountered teachers active in the national liberation movement. In the 1960s he joined the guerrillas to work as a medical assistant. In 1967,

Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (; – ) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, pan-Africanist, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremo ...

sent him – together with José Bolama Cubumba, Josefina Lopes Crato and

Flora Gomes Flora Gomes is a Bissau-Guinean film director. He was born in Cadique, Guinea-Bissau on 31 December 1949 and after high school in Cuba, he decided to study film at the Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos in Havana. Shot f ...

– to study filmmaking at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. He later studied at the

Institut des hautes études cinématographiques L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC; the "Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies") is a French film school, founded during World War II under the leadership of Marcel L'Herbier who was its president from 1944 to 1969. ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. In 1978, Na N’Hada became the first director of the National Film Institute, holding the post until 1989. Na N’Hada started his own filmmaking with several short films, the first two co-directed with his contemporary

. He collaborated with Chris Marker on Marker's essay-film ''

Sans Soleil ''Sans Soleil'' (; "Sunless") is a 1983 French documentary film directed by Chris Marker. It is a meditation on the nature of human memory, showing the inability to recall the context and nuances of memory, and how, as a result, the perception of ...

'' (1983), providing Marker with footage of Bissau Carnival. He was also assistant director to Flora Gomes for his first feature film, ''Mortu Nega'' hose Whom Death Refused(1988), and in ''Po di sangui'' lood Tree His first feature film, '' Xime'' (1994) was co-written with Joop van Wijk. ''Xime'' was a historical film set in 1962, the year before Guinea Bissau's war of liberation started. It was shown at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

. His documentary ''Bissau d'Isabel'' (2005) used the daily life of Isabel Nabalí Nhaga, a nurse struggling to support her family, as a microcosm of the city of Bissau. The documentary ''Kadjike'' (2013), shot in the Bijagós Islands, juxtaposed the natural beauty of the archipelago, and its traditional understanding in Bijagó myth, to the threat posed by its exploitation by the global drug trafficking trade.

Films

* (co-directed with Flora Gomes) ''Regresso de Cabral'' eturn of Cabral 1976. Short semidocumentary. * (co-directed with Flora Gomes) ''Anos no Oça Luta'' e Dare to Fight 1978. Short semidocumentary. * '' Xime'', 1994. Feature film. * ''Bissau d'Isabel'' sabel's Bissau 2005. Documentary. * ''Kadjike'' acred Bush 2013 * ''Os Escultores de Espíritos'' he Sculptors of Spirits 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Na N Hada, Sana 1950 births Living people Bissau-Guinean film directors People from Oio Region