Movie-Database

Cheick Fantamady Camara

Biography

Born in 1960 in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, Cheick Fantamady Camara went to Burkina Faso (then still called Obervolta) in 1980 to study at the only film college south of the Sahara (INAFEC). (The school sadly no longer exists.) As he lacked the financial means to carry on his studies, he had to take a hands-on approach to learning filmmaking. He spent almost two years working in various positions on other people’s films. He was assistant director, for example, on some excellent films, such as „La genese” by Cheick Oumar Sissoko, „Dakan” by Mohammed Camara and „Macadam Tribu” by Zeka Laplaine. The latter was shown (again) in Cologne as part of the anniversary event. It was not until 1997 that Cheick Fantamady Camara finally graduated from a scriptwriting course at the INA film school in Paris.

As part of his studies at the Louis Lumière film school, he shot his first short film „Konorofili”, a reflection on the relationship between Africa and Europe, taking the example of two friends in Paris, which was awarded the Jury’s Special Prize at the FESPACO festival in 2001. His further works include documentaries, such as „Cahier de Memoire” about the International Art and Craft Fair in Ouagadougou, as well as the short film „Little John”, which shows how the traumatic experiences of war and violence that young people go through not only drive them into refugee camps but can also lead to them having violent relationships with one another.

„Il va pleuvoir sur Conakry” is his first full-length feature film. The plot is peppered with ironic insinuations as it exposes the power grab of political and religious rulers, and the audience at the FESPACO pan-African film festival in Ouagadougou in 2007 liked it so much that they awarded it the Audience Prize, which for the director is „the best prize of all". At the "Vues d`Afrique" festival in Montreal he received the main prize for the film. Cheick Fantamady Camara had the following to say in an interview about where the idea for the film came from, "It`s a story that I have experienced personally and have seen happen around where I live. We live in a melange of tradition and modernity and, when our traditions gain the upper hand, they can contribute to us being repressed. They`re a product of history. That doesn`t mean, however, that we have the right to change the course of history."

Filmography

Il va pleuvoir sur Conakry (2007): Screenplay, Direction