"Cinema Died at Camp Boiro" (2017)
Video installation: 25 min 32 sec
Cinema was fertile ground for sculpting identities in the wake of the post-colonial era. In the 1960s, during the Cold War, as a form of soft power, the Soviet Union offered scholarships to study filmmaking at its iconic Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. Newly independent Guinea sent the first wave of African students from Conakry, having plans to set up its local cinematographic industry. The pioneers of the first post-independence generation of Guinean filmmakers included Costa Diagne, Kalifa Condé, and many others, who went on to become the fathers of African cinema. Through interviews, conversations with family members, and excerpts from archival material, this documentary traces the trajectory of hope and deception while attempting to create a vibrant cinema industry on the African continent.
When Guinea gained independence from France in 1958, Ahmed Sékou Touré became the first president of the country. Over the years that followed, his regime became increasingly repressive, and thousands of opposition leaders were persecuted and imprisoned at the infamous Camp Boiro (1960–1984). Fearing the power of the image, Sékou Touré incarcerated the entire group of young filmmakers returning from studies abroad. Costa Diagne spent years in detention and even lost his eyesight due to the inhumane conditions in Camp Boiro prison. Cinema Died at Camp Boiro documents an example of one of the many visionary projects that collapsed in various African countries in the wake of independence.
The personal narratives that El Tahri has captured lead to a greater understanding of a complex web of larger stories around Guinean independence as well as Soviet cultural diplomacy. El Tahri’s work also invites viewers to apprehend lesser-known episodes in film history and reckon with the weight of some of the unrealized dreams that followed independence.
/ Photo credit: Kristīne Madjare & Lauris Aizupietis / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art