COUNTRIES: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cameroon YEAR: 2021 RUNTIME: 80 min

DIRECTED BY: Rosine Mbakam, Eléonore Yameogo, An Van Dienderen

LANGUAGE(S): French, English, Abkhazian, Arabic

SUBTITLES: English

PRODUCED BY: Natalie Gielen

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Léo Lefèvre, Tristan Galand, Philippe Radoux

EDITED BY: Effi Weiss, Nina de Vroome, Geoffroy Cernaix

SCORE: Simon Winsé

SCREENINGS

SYNOPSIS

For PRISM Belgian filmmaker An van. Dienderen invited Brussels based Rosine Mbakam from Cameroon and Paris based Eléonore Yameogo from Burkina Faso to make a film in which the differences in their skin color serves as a starting point to explore their experiences with the limitations of the medium. Photographic media are technologically and ideologically biased, favoring Caucasian skin. Such white-centricity means that the photographic media assume, privilege and construct whiteness.

PRISM problematizes the objectivity of the camera and its inequality of power to tackle other inequalities in society based on skin color.

Rosine Mbakam

Rosine Mbakam grew up in Cameroon. She first started at COE (NGO) where she was trained in editing and directing. She made several documentaries for this NGO. In 2003, she joined the team of STV (Spectrum Television) where she made several audiovisual programmes. In 2007, she left Cameroon to study film at INSAS (Belgium). In 2014, she co-founded Tândor Productions with Geoffroy Cernaix. Her first feature-length documentary CHEZJOLIE COIFFURE was screened at the NIHRFF 2019 International Competition.

Les portes du passé (2011), You will be my ally (2012), The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman (2016), Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018), Delphine’s Prayers (2021), Prism (2021), Mambar Pierrette (2023)

Eléonore Yameogo

Eléonore Yameogo is a young female filmmaker from Burkina Faso. Her career began on the film sets of Ouagadougou, where she acquired field experience, before studying cinema in Burkina Faso, Belgium and France where she currently lives. THE ELEPHANT CEMETERY and PARIS MY PARADISE are her two most recent films before PRISM and deal with existential issues between Africa and the West..

Ouaga HH (2007), La main tendue (2008), Paris mon Paradis (2011), The Cemetery of Elephants (2018), Prism (2021), Le Galop (2023)

An Van Dienderen

An van. Dienderen is a filmmaker who works at the intersection between documentary, anthropology, and visual arts. She graduated in audiovisual arts and obtained a PhD in Comparative Cultural Sciences. Her documentaries screened worldwide and were awarded with (inter)national prizes..

Yzer (1993), Coïtus (1995), Visitors of the Night (1998), Site, Portrait topographique de José Besprosvany (2000), Tu ne verras pas Verapaz (2002), The ephemerist. Pocket Librarian of the Veldstraat (2004)m Patrasche, A Dog of Flanders (2008), Cherry Blossoms (2013), Letter Home (2015), Lili (2015), Prism (2021)

PRODUCTION: Elektrischer Schnellseher, Tândor productions (tandor.prod@gmail.com)

WORLD SALES: Andana Films (contact@andanafilms.com)