African Film Festivals in Africa: Curating "African Audiences" for "African Films".

One might even say that the first African filmmakers and critics were haunted by the audience - or, rather, by the lack of African audiences for African films. [208] If one takes the first film festivals in postcolonial Africa as one's examples, it is not possible to say that they "emerged slowly"; rather, several burst onto the scene in the 1960s as significant acts of cultural and political resistance, liberation and self-empowerment, inspiring discussions and debates about Africa, African film, African filmmakers, and African aesthetics on African soil. Along with a huge increase in the number of films and participating countries, FESPACO saw a massive growth in audiences, most of whom were local: from 10,000 (in 1969) to 100,000 (in 1979)[242] and from 400,000 (in 1987) to 500,000-600,000 (in 2009).[243] It was not love (or identification) at first sight, however, when it came to African spectators watching African films at FESPACO. On October 15, 1987 he was assassinated; many believe his death was ordered by Blaise Compaoré, who was in power from then until 2014.[268] However, while many African filmmakers boycotted the 1989 edition of FESPACO in protest,[269] and while certain African filmmakers (such as Haile Gerima) have altogether refused to return to FESPACO since the Marxist leader's assassination,[270] Gaston Kaboré argues that "cinema in Burkina does not belong to one government or one president. Indeed, the video movies made by Ghanaians, Nigerians, and other Africans in the past thirty years have undoubtedly provided an exciting alternative to the kinds of African films typically curated through FESPACO and other festivals, most obviously because they have been available to African audiences in a way that the African films shown at festivals have frequently not. [Extracted from the article]

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