Safi Faye (born November 22, 1943) is a

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

ese film director and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

.Petrolle, p. 177. She was the first Sub-Saharan

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film, ''

Kaddu Beykat ''Kaddu Beykat'' ( Serer: "Voice of the Peasant"; also known as ''Lettre paysanne'' or ''Letter from My Village'') is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by Safi Faye. It was the first feature film made by a Black African woman to be commercially dist ...

'', which was released in 1975. She has directed several documentary and fiction films focusing on rural life in Senegal.

Biography

Early life and education

Safi Faye was born in 1943 in

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

, Senegal, to an aristocratic Serer family. Her parents, the Fayes, were from Fad'jal, a village south of Dakar.Foster, p. 130. She attended the

Normal School A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

in Rufisque and receiving her teaching certificate in 1962 or 1963, began teaching in Dakar. In 1966 she went to the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts and met French ethnologist and filmmaker

Jean Rouch Jean Rouch (; 31 May 1917 – 18 February 2004) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist. He is considered one of the founders of cinéma vérité in France. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker, for over 60 years in Africa, was characterized b ...

. He encouraged her to use film making as an ethnographic tool. She had an acting role in his 1971 film ''Petit à petit''.Ukadike, p. 29. Faye has said that she dislikes Rouch's film but that working with him enabled her to learn about filmmaking and cinéma-vérité.Spaas, p. 185. In the 1970s she studied ethnology at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

and then at the Lumière Film School. She supported herself by working as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

, an

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and in film sound effects. In 1979, she received a PhD in ethnology from the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. From 1979 to 1980, Faye studied video production in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and was a guest lecturer at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

.Schmidt, p. 286. She received a further degree in ethnology from the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in 1988.

Film career

Faye's first film, in which she also acted, was a 1972 short called ''La Passante'' (''The Passerby''), drawn from her experiences as a foreign woman in Paris. It follows a woman (Faye) walking down a street and noticing the reactions of men nearby. Faye's first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

was ''

'', which means ''The Voice of the Peasant'' in Wolof and was known internationally as ''Letter from My Village'' or ''News from My Village''. She obtained financial backing for ''Kaddu Beykat'' from the French Ministry of Cooperation. Released in 1975, it was the first feature film to be made by a Sub-Saharan African woman to be commercially distributed and gained international recognition for Faye.Ukadike, p. 30. On its release it was banned in Senegal. In 1976 it won the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics (tied with '' Chhatrabhang'') and the

OCIC SIGNIS (official name: World Catholic Association for Communication) is a Roman Catholic lay ecclesial movement for professionals in the communication media, including press, radio, television, cinema, video, media education, internet, and ne ...

Award. Faye's 1983 documentary film '' Selbé: One Among Many'' follows a 39-year-old woman called Sélbe who works to support her eight children since her husband has left their village to look for work. Selbé regularly converses with Faye, who remains off-screen, and describes her relationship with her husband and daily life in the village.Thackway, p. 154. Faye's films are better known in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

than in her native Africa, where they are rarely shown.

Personal life

Faye, who lives in Paris, is divorced and has one daughter.

Filmography

*1972: '' La Passante'' ('' The Passerby'') *1975: ''

'' (''Letter from My Village'') *1979: '' Fad'jal'' ('' Come and work'') *1979: ''

Goob na nu Goob may refer to: * Kudditji Kngwarreye or "Goob" (1938–2017), Australian Aboriginal artist * ''The Goob'', a 2014 British film * ''The Goob'', an Assorted Nuts Animation Studios animated series * Michael "Goob" Yagoobian, a character in the 2 ...

'' ('' The harvest is in'') *1980: '' Man Sa Yay'' ('' I, Your Mother'') *1981: '' Les âmes au soleil'' ('' Souls under the Sun'') *1983: '' Selbe: One Among Many'' (or '' Selbe and So Many Others'') *1983: '' 3 ans 5 mois'' ('' Three years five months'') *1985: '' Racines noires'' (''Black Roots'') *1985: '' Elsie Haas, femme peintre et cinéaste d'Haiti'' (''Elsie Haas, Haitian Woman Painter and Filmmaker'') *1989: '' Tesito'' *1996: ''

Mossane ''Mossane'' is a 1996 Senegalese drama film directed by Safi Faye. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Unlike some of Faye's earlier films which use a documentary style, ''Mossane'' is purely fictio ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Faye, Safi 1943 births Senegalese ethnologists Women ethnologists Living people People from Dakar Safi Senegalese anthropologists Senegalese film actresses Senegalese film directors Senegalese women film directors Serer anthropologists Serer film directors Serer actresses