{"id":12435,"date":"2019-01-23T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=12435"},"modified":"2019-01-23T14:17:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T20:17:41","slug":"africa-focus-of-now-artists-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=12435","title":{"rendered":"Africa focus of NOW! artist\u2019s films"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uapHxQxtsm4\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~~~~~<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">We&#8217;d like to remind our dearest readers about <a title=\"ART NOW! :: City of Urbana, Illinois\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urbanaillinois.us\/artnow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">the video series <strong>ART NOW!<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that has given us portraits of our community&#8217;s creative neighbors for nearly 10 years and almost 100 episodes. <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">C-U Blogfidential<\/span><\/strong> tends to zero in on the outings that pertain to media personalities, but <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"ART NOW! playlist @ YouTube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLiG7sxd3aTy39LO39e11O1XqS8RMGOfgi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one skim through the <strong>YouTube<\/strong> playlist<\/a><\/span> reveals a diverse pool of individuals and milieus being represented in this invaluable record. A collaboration between the <strong>Urbana Public Arts Program<\/strong> and <strong>Urbana Public Television,<\/strong> <strong>ART NOW!<\/strong> is currently directed by <strong>Jason Liggett<\/strong> of UPTV and relies on the off-screen interviewing skills of the city&#8217;s public arts coordinator, <strong>Rachel Storm<\/strong>. This is a distinction from older shows that featured a host sitting with the subject; as we noticed while watching the profile of documentary producer <strong>Bourema \u201cIbrahim\u201d Ouedraogo<\/strong> first aired in December, the single-person framing device can provide a more intimate scope through which we can focus on the artist&#8217;s words and personality. It&#8217;s not an oral history yet it allows plenty of space for the artist to involve us in their life experiences and expectations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">According to the highlights of <strong>Episode 96<\/strong>, Ouedraogo moved to the <strong>United States<\/strong> from <strong>Africa<\/strong> in 2010 and lived briefly in <strong>Peoria<\/strong> and <strong>Bloomington<\/strong> before arriving in <strong>Champaign<\/strong>. Skills he learned while performing various on-set and studio roles in his native <strong>Burkina Faso<\/strong> helped him transition to a career here, starting with a position at <strong>WTVP-TV<\/strong> in Peoria and now working freelance jobs in the upper Midwest. Locally, he has participated in <strong>Champaign Movie Makers<\/strong> and <strong>Pens to Lens<\/strong> as well as built a relationship with the <a title=\"Independent Media Center :: Home Page\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucimc.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Independent Media Center<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, hosting filmmaking workshops and screenings at their downtown <strong>Urbana<\/strong> location. Ouedraogo has not lost sight of his heritage, per a biography issued by the IMC, for his personal pieces explore the social norms and struggles he witnesses when returning to west Africa. As well, Burkina Faso is considered the capital of African movie production due in large part to <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"FESPACO :: Official Site\" href=\"https:\/\/fespaco.bf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the biennial <strong>Panafrican Film and Television Festival<\/strong><\/a> <\/span>held in the capital of <strong>Ouagadougou<\/strong>; this celebration is better known as <strong>FESPACO<\/strong> after its French-language name. It clearly influences him to this day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"ART NOW! (Logo type: UPTV\/UPAP)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/Images\/CUBlog Art\/cu_artnow_logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"190\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It is not easy to see Ouedraogo&#8217;s films apart from the brief clips and photographs shown on <strong>ART NOW!<\/strong> He manages several <a title=\"Global Visual Media Studio @ YouTube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC29m_2RdKkvTHsB7H0L6_bg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">YouTube<\/span><\/a> and <a title=\"Bourema \u201cIbrahim\u201d Ouedraogo @ Vimeo\" href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/studiowedprod\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Vimeo<\/span><\/strong><\/a> accounts, populated for the most part by IMC fundraising videos, FESPACO footage, and wedding recordings, but at least we have one example of narrative cinema to share. <strong>M\u00c9MORIE DE PAS<\/strong> (<strong>MEMORY OF STEP<\/strong>) is a short about a girl attending school in <strong>Mali<\/strong>, the massive country bordering Burkina Faso to the north and west, when she flashes back to a visit with her grandmother who teaches her a secret dance that is passed down in the family. This forms an idea in the girl&#8217;s mind for her writing assignment. Ouedraogo filmed <strong>M\u00c9MORIE DE PAS<\/strong> during a trip home as he did <strong>GLASS QUEENS<\/strong>, which he presented last summer at the IMC along with the influential Burkinab\u00e9 feature <strong>YAABA<\/strong> (<strong>GRANDMOTHER<\/strong>) from 1989. In the more recent short subject, he observes a group of resourceful women in Burkina Faso who spend time at trash sites &#8211; <a title=\"\u2018From Burkina Faso to Senegal: How recycling trash could help Africa\u2019 by Julia Crawford :: SWI swissinfo.ch\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swissinfo.ch\/eng\/politics\/from-burkina-faso-to-senegal_how-recycling-trash-could-help-africa\/43726988\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">waste is a major issue in many African nations, especially plastic<\/span><\/a> &#8211; to help deal with their own poverty and an environmental crisis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Although there seems to be little else available that we can find about <strong>GLASS QUEENS<\/strong>, we hope to hear more about Ouedraogo as he continues growing as an independent producer in his adopted home of Champaign. He will certainly provide a unique perspective on how one tells a story through cinema, <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"\u2018Burkina Faso: Prime Minister and cabinet resign from office\u2019 :: BBC News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-46930537\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">let alone the circumstances<\/a><\/span> under which <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"\u2018A Closer Look At Burkinab\u00e9 Cinema\u2019 by Boukary Sawadogo :: Cinema Escapist\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinemaescapist.com\/2018\/05\/closer-look-burkinabe-cinema\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that cinema is created<\/a><\/span>, and our film culture should welcome it. Keep a look out for our new neighbor and his <strong>Global Visual Media Studio<\/strong> banner.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>p.s.<\/em> The more-than-likely unrelated <strong>Idrissa Ou\u00e9draogo<\/strong>, one of the best-known Burkina Faso film directors whose acclaimed features (including <strong>YAABA<\/strong>) have received international play, passed away a year ago February in Ouagadougou. <a title=\"\u2018Idrissa Ou\u00e9draogo, Lauded African Filmmaker, Dies at 64\u2019 by Neil Genzlinger :: The New York Times\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/23\/obituaries\/idrissa-ouedraogo-leading-african-filmmaker-dies-at-64.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">A <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">New York Times<\/span><\/strong> obituary from that time<\/span><\/a> combed through his career while characterizing a body of work that is humanist as it observes the doings of its characters and the changes they face, also noting the late filmmaker had been criticized for not ttaking on overtly political material. Conversely, <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" title=\"\u2018The Cinema According to Idrissa Ou\u00e9draogo\u2019 by Aboubakar Sanogo :: Toronto International Film Festival\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiff.net\/the-review\/the-cinema-according-to-idrissa-ouedraogo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this essay published by the <strong>Toronto International Film Festival<\/strong><\/a><\/span> fields an argument that Ou\u00e9draogo was indeed political in his poetry, doing his part to reclaim agency for the Burkinab\u00e9 people after the end of French rule through his screen stories and the African film industry he helped to shape.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~~~~~<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/74490342\" width=\"450\" height=\"330\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/74490342\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">MEMOIRE DE PAS<\/span><\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/studiowedprod\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Bourema Ouedraogo<\/span><\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Vimeo<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z2swWIqEA3s\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Urbana Public Television\/Urbana Public Arts Program series ART NOW! returns to filmmaker territory with an episode on Bourema \u201cIbrahim\u201d Ouedraogo, a Burkina Faso native recently settled in Champaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,53,15,20],"tags":[2034,1555,2029,2030,1928,2031,2035,2033,1273,2032,548],"class_list":["post-12435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcast-dates","category-educationclasses","category-media-coverage","category-videos-du-c-u","tag-africa","tag-art-now","tag-bourema-ouedraogo","tag-burkina-faso","tag-documentary-films","tag-fespaco","tag-idrissa-ouedraogo","tag-jason-liggett","tag-rachel-storm","tag-urbana-public-arts-program","tag-urbana-public-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}