{{Short description|Organisation of filmmakers of Africa and its Diaspora}} {{use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} '''The Pan African Federation of Filmmakers''' ('''Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes''' or '''FEPACI''') is an organisation representing filmmakers from the continent of Africa. It was officially established in 1970, after a foundation meeting held in Tunis in 1969.

==History== The Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (French: ''Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes''), abbreviated as FEPACI, was founded in 1969 by a provisional committee at the inaugural Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), and officially established in 1970 in Tunis,<ref name=martin2021>{{cite journal | last=Martin | first=Michael T. | title=The Long Take: Gaston Kaboré on the Formation, Evolution & Challenges to FEPACI & FESPACO | journal=Black Camera | publisher=Indiana University Press | volume=12 | issue=1 | date= Fall 2020 | issn=1947-4237 | pages=208–236 | url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/780264 | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> at the Carthage Film Festival.<ref name=Artxiboa>{{cite web | title=Regulations of the II Cartago International Film Festival | website=Artxiboa | date=30 July 2024 | url=https://artxiboa.sansebastianfestival.com/en/document-of-the-month/2024-07/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010033101/https://artxiboa.sansebastianfestival.com/en/document-of-the-month/2024-07/ | archive-date=10 October 2024 | url-status=live | access-date=17 June 2025| quote= In that first edition, the so-called 'father of African cinema' Ousmane Sembène won the Golden Tanit with his feature film ''La Noire de...'' (1966). After his visit to the event, he became involved with the politician Alimata Salambere in the creation of the other major festival on the African continent, the FESPACO (Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadougou), inaugurated in Burkina Faso three years later... It is no coincidence that in 1970, within the framework of the Carthage Film Festival, the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) was created, which would develop a basis for South-South film cooperation with African, Latin American and Asian countries.}}</ref> A document called "The Algiers Charter" was adopted during a symposium of African filmmakers organised by the Cinémathèque algérienne in the Ibn Khaldoun cinema in July 1969. Here pioneering filmmakers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Ousmane Sembène, and Mahama Johnson Traoré played leading roles. Others at the symposium included Youssef Chahine (Egypt), Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (Algeria), Desiré Ecaré (Ivory Coast), Ahmed Rachedi (Algeria), and Lionel Ngakane (South Africa). The group called for the creation of an organisation representing African filmmakers as well as a Pan-African film festival. Algerian director Tahar Cheriaa, who was in prison at the time, was released after an international appeal started by the 40 African filmmakers. The Algiers Charter was later affirmed in Cheriaa's presence in Tunis in 1970, on the occasion of a foundational congress.<ref name=Bedjaoui2023>{{cite web | title=Once upon a Time There Was PANAF: Liberation Movements and Cultural Representations of African Dreams | website=African Film Festival, Inc. | date=15 August 2023|first= Ahmed |last=Bedjaoui | url=https://africanfilmny.org/articles/once-upon-a-time-there-was-panaf/ | access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>

In April 2006, FEPACI, under secretary general Jacques Behanzin, collaborated with the South African Department of Arts and Culture and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) of South Africa to host the first African Film Summit in the Tshwane, Gauteng, South Africa. The summit arose from calls by many in the industry to create an African commission on the audiovisual and cinema industries and a fund to promote the African cinema industry and television programmes. Many representatives of industry-related organisations, such as the Guild of African Directors and the East African Filmmakers Forum, and government statutory bodies, such as the Nigerian Film Corporation, took part in panel discussions at the summit.<ref>{{cite web | title=AFRICAN FILM SUMMIT | website=artsmart | date=10 April 2006 | url=https://www.artsmart.co.za/film/archive/806.html | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref>

After the summit, a FEPACI Congress took place in Tshwane, at which, for the first time in its history, members voted that while FEPACI headquarters should remain based in Ouagadougou, the FEPACI Secretariat would be based in South Africa from 2006 to 2010, under the leadership of South African Secretary General Seipati Bulane Hopa.<ref name=about/>

In June 2007, FEPACI called for an investigation into the threatened closure of the Film Resource Unit in South Africa. The FRU is a major distributor of African films, and, according to FEPACI's statement is also "a political, ideological platform that creates a sense of pride and resonance that Africa can stand by itself and can initiate, own and control instruments of change and transformation".<ref>{{cite web | title=FEPACI calls for Film Resource Unit investigation | website=Bizcommunity | date=8 June 2007 | url=https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/17/15307.html | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref>

On 7 June 2017, a letter of agreement was signed among FEPACI, UNESCO, and American director Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation World Cinema Project, to formalise their partnership on the African Film Heritage Project, which has as its mission the preservation of African cinema.<ref>{{cite web | last=Kohn | first=Eric | title=Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation World Cinema Project, UNESCO and FEPACI Explain Their Efforts to Restore African Film | website=IndieWire | date=9 June 2017 | url=https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/scorsese-african-film-heritage-project-unesco-fepaci-1201840260/ | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref>

==Description== Based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, FEPACI described itself as "the continental voice of filmmakers from various regions of Africa and the diaspora".<ref name=about>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fepaci.org/aboutus.htm |title=About FEPACI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150718234815/http://www.fepaci.org/aboutus.htm |archive-date=18 July 2015 |access-date=17 June 2023}} Official website back then.</ref>

==People== ===Founders=== Founding members of both FEPACI and FESPACO included: * Gadalla Gubara (Sudan)<ref>{{cite web | title=The Film Holdings of Gadalla Gubara (2013, 2016) | website=Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. | url=https://www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/archive-distribution/archive-projects/the-film-holdings-of-gadalla-gubara-2013-2016/ | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> * Lionel Ngakane (South Africa)<ref>{{cite web | title=Lionel Ngakane | website=The Independent|first= Stephen |last= Bourne | date=8 December 2003 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lionel-ngakane-37597.html | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> * King Ampaw (Ghana)<ref name=afny>{{cite web | title=Ampaw, King | website=African Film Festival, Inc. | url=https://africanfilmny.org/directors/king-ampaw/ | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> * Philippe Mory (Gabon)<ref>{{cite web | title=Philippe Mory est mort à 81 ans - | website=Gabon TV | date=7 June 2016 | url=https://gabonactu.com/blog/2016/06/07/philippe-mory-mort-a-81-ans/ | language=fr | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> * Paulin Soumanou Vieyra (Benin/Senegal)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Ousmane Sembène (Senegal)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Mahama Johnson Traoré (Senegal)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Youssef Chahine (Egypt)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (Algeria)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Desiré Ecaré (Ivory Coast)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/> * Ahmed Rachedi (Algeria)<ref name=Bedjaoui2023/>

===Officeholders=== As cited by one source, Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar Samb Makharam served as secretary general from 1971 to 1977.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://africanfilmny.org/directors/ababacar-samb-makharam/| title=Ababacar Samb-Makharam| website= African Film Festival New York | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> However, another source states that another Senegalese filmmaker, Mahama Johnson Traoré, occupied the role from 1975 to 1983.<ref name=APS>{{cite web| url=http://www.aps.sn/aps.php?page=articles&id_article=65945| title= Mahama Johnson Traoré inhumé vendredi au cimetière musulman de Yoff|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722075126/http://www.aps.sn/aps.php?page=articles&id_article=65945 |archive-date=2011-07-22 |date= 10 March 2010|website=Agence du Presse Senegalese}}</ref>

Burkinabé filmmaker Gaston Kaboré (b.1951) had a longstanding involvement with the organisation as well as FESPACO,<ref name=martin2021/> and was, according to at least two source, secretary general from 1985 to 1997.<ref>{{cite web | title= Short bio for Gaston Kaboré| url=https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/africana_studies_conf/Bio-Kabore.pdf | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Directors: Gaston Kaboré | website=trigon-film | url=https://trigon-film.org/en/directors/gaston-kabore/ | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref> However, a 2020 article states that Filippe Savadogo was secretary general in 1989.<ref>{{cite journal| author=Petty, Sheila. |title=FESPACO and Its Many Afterlives| journal= Black Camera| volume= 12| issue= 1 |date= 2020| p= 276|doi=10.2979/blackcamera.12.1.24|via= JSTOR}}</ref>

In 2000, Burkinabé filmmaker Pierre Rouamba was coordinator of FEPACI.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pierre Ernest Rouamba | website=Africiné | url=https://www.africine.org/index.php/personne/pierre-ernest-rouamba/10887 | language=fr | access-date=16 June 2025}}</ref>

As of January 2016, Kenyan filmmaker Jane Munene-Murago was executive director.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016-09-08-film-industry-to-receive-sh20-billion| title= Film industry to receive Sh20 billion| website= The Star |date= 21 January 2019}}</ref>

Gabonese filmmaker Charles Mensah (1948–2011), who was director general of the Centre National du Cinéma Gabonais (CENACI; later known as Institut Gabonais de l'Image et du Son (Gabonese Institute of Image and Sound), or IGIS), for more than 20 years, served a term as president of FEPACI.<ref>{{cite web | title=Il y a 4 ans le cinéaste Charles Mensah tirait sa révérence | website=gabonactu.com | date=3 June 2015 | url=http://www.gabonactu.com/il-y-a-4-ans-le-cineaste-charles-mensah-tirait-sa-reverence/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101113357/http://www.gabonactu.com/il-y-a-4-ans-le-cineaste-charles-mensah-tirait-sa-reverence/ |first=Martin|last=Safou| archive-date=1 November 2016 | url-status=dead | language=fr | access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite journal | title=The FEPACI and Its Artistic Legacies |first=Sada |last=Niang| journal=Black Camera | publisher=Indiana University Press | volume=12 | issue=2 | year=2021 | issn=1536-3155 | doi=10.2979/blackcamera.12.2.11 | page=176}} *"[https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.13.1.0246 Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) Master Report: Selections]". ''Black Camera'' 13, no. 1 (2021): 246–62. * "[https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.13.1.0111 "An Outlook on FEPACI: Report Submitted to Mr. Gaston Kaboré, Secretary General, Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI)]". ''Black Camera'' 13, no. 1 (2021): 111–41.

Category:Film organizations in Africa