Sarah Bouyain (born 1968) is a
French-
Burkinabé writer and film director. Her first full-length film, ''
The Place in Between'', was released in 2010.
Biography
Bouyain was born in
Reims,
Marne Marne can refer to:
Places France
*Marne (river), a tributary of the Seine
*Marne (department), a département in northeastern France named after the river
* La Marne, a commune in western France
*Marne, a legislative constituency (France)
Nethe ...
, France. Her mother, who was French, and her father, who was half Burkinabé and half French, met in France while he was studying there.
Having originally studied
mathematics, Bouyain later shifted her attention to
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
,
studying at the Louis Lumière School of Cinematography. She went on to work as a camerawomen for several films, and eventually directed several of her own.
In 2000, she
created the documentary film ''Les enfants du Blanc''.
She wrote her book ''Metisse façon'' in 2003 after researching her
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 heritage in Burkina Faso. She learned of the history of
Upper Volta (as Burkina Faso was known in
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
times) and of children who were born to African women and French soldiers only to be forced to leave their mothers to live in orphanages. The characters in ''Metisse façon'' are based on these children.
Bouyain has also written articles, mainly on the theme of mixed-race and exile, for
Africultures, ''
Presence Africaine'' and
CODESRIA.
Her first feature-length film is ''Notre Étrangère'' ("The Place In Between"; 2010), which ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' called " A nicely observed docudrama about a biracial young French woman who goes back to her roots." The plot of the movie is based on a mixed race woman named Amy who moves back to Burkina Faso. The movie was co-written by Gaelle Mace and it premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. Boyain claimed that the film took seven years to make in total. She said she did not watch many African films prior to making it.
Bouyain was one of the speakers at the African Women in Film Forum held in
Accra, Ghana between 23 and 25 September 2013.
ARTivists – “Anything created by an African woman is an act of activism” (Part 1)
ThisIsAfrica, Retrieved 2016-11-02.
Works
Films
*''Niararaye'' (1997)
*''Les enfants du Blanc'' (documentary; 2000)
*'' The Place in Between'' (2010)
Books
*''Métisse façon'' (short stories; 2003)
References
External links
Sarah Bouyain website.
*
*
Sarah Bouyain, director of "The Place in Between" - Venice Days, interview on YouTube.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouyain, Sarah
Living people
1968 births
Burkinabé women writers
Burkinabé novelists
French women novelists
Burkinabé film directors
Burkinabé women film directors
French film directors
Burkinabé people of French descent
French women film directors
Mass media people from Reims
21st-century Burkinabé people