Objectives

To deliver its missions, the African Film Library of Ouagadougou has set itself a number of objectives, including:

• Collect African films and any works relating to Africa
• Process, preserve and showcase films collected through consultation by film and audio-visual researchers and professionals
• Develop an inventory and a catalogue of Africa’s film heritage
• Develop the filmography of African cinema
• Build and equip a multipurpose projection room with an exhibition space that can accommodate a film market and TV programmes, a film museum, etc.
• develop a documentation centre and a computerized database on African cinema.

Activities

The African Film Library of Ouagadougou carries out several activities in line with its objectives.

• Film collection, inventory and cataloguing
  The African Film Library has a modern centre (functional since 1995) for the preservation of works where more than twelve thousand (12,000) films are processed and stored, including documentaries, fictions, newsreels, features and shorts that are representative of the cinematographies of all regions in Africa.

• Preservation
  Film copies are stored in specially equipped rooms with strictly controlled temperature and humidity. An air-conditioning production system keeps the temperature inside the cells between 15°c and 20°c with relative humidity between 30% and 40%.

• Documentation
  An important non-film equipment relating to African cinema has been collected. A centre with a wide range of documentation is made available to the public for consultation. The centre has a collection of more than 6,000 photos, 500 film posters, several thousands of press articles, specialized journals, press reviews, film press kits, books, scripts, etc.

• Access to collections
  The Film Library has already opened the doors of its collections to numerous film students, lecturers, researchers and professionals. Students have come from Africa and other continents to see films, do research and meet resource people as part of their final dissertations or theses. Access to the collections is subject to a reasoned request. The African Film Library also has several mobile cinema and video units and a qualified staff for the organization of film screenings in towns and villages of Burkina Faso. These non-profit screenings are organized in partnership with NGOs, associations, schools and other public and private institutions.

• Film screenings
  • The mobile cinema
    This activity consists of going out to the most remote communities for screenings to introduce these communities to cinema and raise their awareness of issues affecting rural communities.
  • The Film Club
    This is an activity by the Film Library with the collaboration and participation of students and schoolchildren. Screening sessions on specific topics are programmed and organized by students, followed by structured and constructive debates. The purpose of this activity is to make African cinema known to the educational world and to make them understand the essence of the messages conveyed by the films.

• Participation in the organization of the festival (FESPACO)
  The Film Library is actively involved in the organization of this major African film festival. In that respect, it has responsibility for:
  • The Film and Audio-visual Heritage Commission which includes activities around the organization of workshops on audio-visual archive management, the organization of FESPACO Classic section, and the exhibition of film and audio-visual archive elements.
  • Providing support for the programming of films in competition in theatres: checking the conditions of theatres and technical equipment and making films available for screenings.