African Women Film Series – Notre Étrangère (The Place in Between) Film Screening
Michigan Theater Screening Room
The University of Michigan’s CEW+, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and African Studies Center are pleased to present the 2018-19 African Women Film Series. These exciting films celebrate women’s voices through rich, dynamic, and intimate visual portrayals.
Program
Opening Remarks – Dr. Freida Ekotto, Professor of French, Comparative Literature & Afroamerican and African Studies, LSA
Film Screening “Notre Etragere / The Place In Between”
Commentary/ Q&A – Sarah Bouyain, Writer / Director
About the Guest Lecturer:
Sarah Bouyain is the writer and director of “Notre Etragere / The Place In Between”. The film explores the feeling of being a stranger in one’s own country and eventually the feeling of being a stranger to oneself through the character of Amy, a young mixed-race woman from France and Burkina who returns to Burkina Faso to find her mother. Shown as part of many international film festivals, including those in Venice, Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco, the film won the Best Film prize at the Amiens International Film Festival in 2010 , and in 2011 received the Best First Film award and the European Union prize at the PanAfrican Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Sarah Bouyain was born in Reims (France) in 1968, the daughter of Edith Melkowski (French), a pediatrician, and Joseph Bouyain (Burkinabe), an international civil servant in UNESCO. Having originally studied mathematics, Sarah Bouyain later shifted her attention to cinematography. After studying the topic at the Louis Lumière School of Cinematography in France, she went on to work as a camera assistant for several films. She has worked on Idrissa Ouedraogo’s films “le cri du cœur” and “Afrique, mon Afrique” and Henry Duparc’s film “Couleur café.”
Bouyain also wrote and directed “Children of the White Men”, a documentary film about the mixed-race children born from African mothers and French soldiers during French colonization in Burkina Faso. The film was based on the relationship Sarah Bouyain had with her own grandmother who was one of these children. Bouyain’s other writer and director credits include several film shorts meant to be shown during theatrical performances. She worked for “La traversée aux Disparus” by Eva Doumbia and “Mamiwatta” by Astrid Bayiha. Both plays were performed at the National Theater La Criée, in Marseille. She is also the author of “Métisse façon”, a collection of short stories about old women and young girls living both in France and Burkina Faso who are dealing with the consequences of French colonization in Burkina Faso. In addition, Bouyain has written several articles for Africultures (a French magazine about African art and culture), Presence Africaine, and CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa). Sarah Bouyain is married and lives in Paris.