Joseph Gaï Ramaka (Jo(e) Gaï Ramaka/Joseph Gaye Ramaka, born 9 November 1952 in
Saint Louis, Senegal
Saint Louis or Saint-Louis ( wo, Ndar), is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially ...
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...
,
screen writer
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
T ...
and
film producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...
.
Biography
Gaï Ramaka studied
visual anthropology
Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science a ...
at the
Paris
Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
and film studies 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. ...
(Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies, IDHEC) of
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution.
It is one of the th ...
. In 1990 he founded the French production and distribution company ''Les Ateliers de l’Arche'', with its ''Espace Bell’Arte'' branch in
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in ...
, Senegal since 1999, a screening facility with
Dolby Stereo
Dolby Stereo is a sound format made by Dolby Laboratories. It is a unified brand for two completely different basic systems: the Dolby SVA (stereo variable-area) 1976 system used with optical sound tracks on 35mm film, and Dolby Stereo 70mm nois ...
, helping to create Arche Studios with computerized lighting.
His main feature-length films are ''Nitt... N'Doxx'' / ''Les Faiseurs de pluie'', an adaptation of a story by
Prosper Merimée {{wiktionary, prosper
Prosper may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Places in the United States
* Prosper, Minnesota, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, North Dakota, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, Oregon, an unincorporated community
* Prosper, Texa ...
, ''
Karmen Geï
''Karmen Geï'' is a musical drama film, directed by Joseph Gaï Ramaka and released in 2001. A coproduction of companies from Senegal, France and Canada, the film is an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera ''Carmen'' in a Senegalese setting, with ...
'' (2000), an African version of the opera
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opér ...
, and ''Et si Latif avait raison !'' (And what if Latif were right!, 2006), a political documentary.
In 2007 he founded the
Gaï Ramaka won various awards, such as:
* ''Baaw-Naan/Rites de pluie'' (1985) - Masque d'Or for documentary at the Deuxième Festival International du Film sur le Carnaval et la Fête à Nice. Special mention by the jury at the Quatrième Festival International
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 characterize ...
/Bilan du Film Ethnographique in Paris. First Prize for shorts of the Second Festival of
Perugia
Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia.
The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and par ...
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
1997. Best Film Prize, Festival
Vues d'Afrique Vues d'Afrique is an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec. It is devoted primarily to African film, although it also includes some Canadian films about African Canadian culture.
The event was staged for the first time in 1985, originally unde ...
Montreal 1998.
* ''Karmen Geï'' (2001) - Best Feature Award of the
Pan African Film Festival Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles, California, that states its goal is to promote "cultural understanding among peoples of African descent" through exhibiting art and film. It hosts a film festival and an a ...
(PAFF Los Angeles) 2006.
Literature
*
See also
*
Cinema of Senegal
The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years.
Cinematic history
Early films ...
*
List of Senegalese films
A list by year of films produced in Senegal, many in the French language:
External links
Senegalese filmat the African Film Festival
Senegalese filmat the Internet Movie Database
{{Filmsbycountry
Senegal
*
Films
A film also ca ...