Gaston Kaboré

Réalisateur, scénariste, producteur et formateur burkinabè.

Né en 1951 à Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso), Gaston Jean-Marie Kaboré obtient une maîtrise d’histoire à La Sorbonne avant d’étudier à l’Ecole Supérieure d’Etudes Cinématographiques (ESEC). C’est à la vision de Xala (1975), du réalisateur sénégalais Ousmane Sembene, qu’il envisage pour la première fois le cinéma comme un moyen d’explorer et de faire découvrir la culture africaine. Ill réalise son premier long-métrage au Burkina-Faso : Wênd Kûuni, (Le don de Dieu en 1982), récompensé par le César du film francophone ce qui lui vaut une reconnaissance internationale. Ce premier long métrage sera suivi de Zan Boko (1988), de Rabi (1992) qui remporteront également de très nombreux prix, et de Buud Yam (1997), Etalon d’ Or du FESPACO 97.
Scénariste, réalisateur et producteur, Gaston Kaboré a par ailleurs réalisé plusieurs documentaires ainsi qu’un chapitre de Lumière et compagnie (1995), film choral pour les cent ans du cinématographe. Gaston Kaboré n’a cessé de promouvoir le cinéma africain, notamment en dirigeant le Centre National du Cinéma du Burkina (1977-1988) mais aussi en tant que secrétaire général de la FEPACI (Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes) entre 1985-1997. Il a fondé en 2003 l’Institut de Formation en Audiovisuel Imagine basé à Ouagadougou.

Burkinabese Film director, screenwriter, producer and trainer.

Born in 1951 in Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso), Gaston Jean-Marie Kaboré became interested in how Africa was portrayed abroad during his studies in history in Paris. This led him, in 1974, to study cinematography at the Ecole Superieure d’Etudes Cinematographiques. After returning to Africa, Kaboré was made director of the Centre National du Cinema and taught at the Institut African d’Education Cinematographique.

Kaboré’s first feature, Wend Kuuni (1982) was a breakthrough for African cinema, notable for the way in which it translated African oral tradition to the screen. His next film, the documentary Propos sur le cinéma (Reflections on the cinema, 1986), featured directors Souleymane Cissé from Mali and Mauritanian director Med Hondo discussing the problems facing filmmakers on the continent.

Kaboré produced his second feature, Zan Boko, in 1988 and followed this with a short documentary on a celebrated Burkinabe singer and dancer. Kaboré contributed to the BBC’s Developing Stories, a series of six films by talented filmmakers from the developing world focusing on environmental and developmental issues. He offered Rabi (1993), which won the first prize for young people’s films at the Okomedia International Ecological Film Festival.Kaboré’s international recognition was further marked by his participation in the film Lumière et compagnie (1995) in which 40 directors were asked to make a short film with the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumiere Brothers.

His most recent feature Buud Yam (1997) won the Grand Prize at the FESPACO film festival in 1997.

As for his experience, duties and expertise, he was inter alia technical
adviser in charge of film beside the Ministry in charge of Information and Culture of Burkina Faso (1977-1981), Manager of the National Film Center (1977-1988), lecturer at Institut Africain d’Etudes Cinématographiques (INAFEC) within the university of Ouagadougou (1977-1986), member of the organizing committee of FESPACO since 1978, Secretary General of the panafrican federation of filmmakers (FEPACI), member of the experts’ committee for the settlement of an interafrican consortium for film distribution (CIDC) and the interafrican centre of film production (CIPROFILM) (1977-1986), General Secretary of FEPACI (1985-1997), member of the artistic council of « Afrique en creation » (1991-1993), member of the board of directors of « Ecrans sud » in France. He is also the founder of CINECOM-PRODUCTION created in 1989, and IMAGINE his own film school, qualified in audiovisual and multimedia training that Kaboré currently runs in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.