I remember hearing about the “Ougadougou Film Festival”when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Northern Ghana. I thought I might go. But I never did. Hopefully, I someday will. A recent film I saw and a couple recent news items reminded me of this festival.

The film I recently saw was “Rêves de poussière” (“Dreams of Dust”). It is about a Nigerien farmer who comes to work at a gold mine in Essakane, Burkina Faso. Greed and love are dominant themes. It is a French film and has the sort of slow pacing that French films frequently have (in my experience). But it was very engaging and received some attention at festivals when it came out in 2006 (for instance, it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance). It is currently available on Netflix!

At the MTV Movie Awards, a Congolese film, “Viva Riva” won “Best African Movie”. Thanks to Sean Jacobs’ for this news. He mentions the other finalists: “A Screaming Man” (Chad), “Life, Above All” (South Africa) and “Restless City” (Nigeria).

Sean Jacobs must be watching a lot of movies lately since he also mentions some great documentaries coming up at The Encounters Documentary Film Festival in South Africa.