{{Short description|Cameroonian film director and film editor}} {{Infobox person | name = Jean-Marie Teno | image = Jean-Marie Teno.jpg | birth_date = 14 May 1954 | birth_place = Famleng, Bandjoun. | citizenship = Cameroonian | alma_mater = University of Valenciennes | occupation = Film director and filmmaker. | notable_works = Yellow Fever taximan (short film) }} '''Jean-Marie Teno''' (born 14 May 1954)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jean-Marie Teno • Cinéma du Réel |url=https://www.cinemadureel.org/en/biographies/jean-marie-teno/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Cinéma du Réel |language=en-GB}}</ref> is a Cameroonian film director and filmmaker,<ref name="Armes2008">{{cite book|author=Roy Armes|title=Dictionary of African Filmmakers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88sTRTl6yKwC&pg=PA124|year=2008|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-35116-2|page=124|chapter=Teno, Jean-Marie}}</ref> "one of Africa's most prolific filmmakers".<ref name="Thackway2019">{{cite book|last=Thackway|first=Melissa|editor1-last=Hjort|editor1-first=Mette|editor2-last=Jørholt|editor2-first=Eva|title=African Cinema and Human Rights|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7SBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|year=2019|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-03946-0|pages=89–|chapter=Challenging Perspectives: An Interview with Jean-Marie Teno}}</ref> His films address censorship, human rights violations, globalization, and the effects of colonialism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rutsch |first=Horst |title=Interview with Jean-Marie Teno {{!}} African Film Festival, Inc. |url=https://africanfilmny.org/articles/interview-with-jean-marie-teno/ |access-date=2023-05-08 |language=en-US}}</ref> Teno has made films in many different forms but favors making documentaries. In an interview when asked about his favor style of film to make he responded, "documentary because when you do fiction, people think it's not true. When it's the documentary, they are embarrassed, embarrassed".<ref name="imagesfrancophones.org">{{Cite web |title=Yaoundé : Rencontre avec Jean-Marie Teno, réalisateur |url=https://www.imagesfrancophones.org/actualites/yaounde-rencontre-avec-jean-marie-teno-realisateur-128 |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=www.imagesfrancophones.org}}</ref>
==Life== Teno was born in 1954 in Famleng in Bandjoun.<ref name="Armes2008"/> He studied audiovisual communication at the University of Valenciennes and worked as a film critic for ''Bwana Magazine'' and as editor-in-chief at France 3. In 1983, he directed his first short documentary ''Schubbah'' after receiving encouragement from Souleymane Cissé, a famous African director.<ref name="imagesfrancophones.org"/> In 1992 he made his documentary ''Africa, I will pluck you'' on the effects of colonialism and neocolonialism in Cameroon. In 1996, he made ''Clando'', which won the Audience Award at the 6th African Film Festival in Milan, Italy.<ref>{{Citation|title=Jean-Marie Teno|date=2018-06-05|url=https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean-Marie_Teno&oldid=149247622|work=Wikipédia|language=fr|access-date=2019-11-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879403/|title=Jean-Marie Téno|website=IMDb|access-date=2019-11-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.africanfilmny.org/nyaff26/event/master-class-with-jean-marie-teno/|title=MASTER CLASS WITH JEAN-MARIE TENO|date=2019-05-14|website=New York African Film Festival|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-02|archive-date=2019-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102120647/https://www.africanfilmny.org/nyaff26/event/master-class-with-jean-marie-teno/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.filmlinc.org/events/master-class-with-jean-marie-teno/|title=Master Class with Jean-Marie Teno|website=Film at Lincoln Center|language=en|access-date=2019-11-02}}</ref>
Jean-Marie Teno is also a producer of his own films with Les Films du Raphia. In 2007-2008, he was a Visiting Artist at Copeland Fellow at Amherst College, and in 2009-2010 he was Visiting Professor at Hampshire College, Massachusetts.<ref name="Thackway2019"/>
He lives between France, Cameroon and the United States.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}
== Film reception == Despite receiving high praise from the internationally community, Teno's films were banned from being aired in Cameroon. Teno was reportedly told in a meeting with the Director of Television of Cameroon that his films would never be broadcast.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1997-08-05 |title=The NI Interview |url=https://newint.org/features/1997/08/05/interview |access-date=2023-05-08 |website=New Internationalist |language=en}}</ref> Teno received much appreciation throughout his career for telling African history from an African perspective. In part due the success of directors like Teno, more universities began offering African film studies classes and looking at alternative perspectives of history.<ref name="imagesfrancophones.org"/>
==Filmography== * 1983 : ''Schubbah'' (short film) * 1985 : ''Tribute'' (short film) * 1985 : ''Yellow Fever taximan'' (short film) * 1987 : ''The Slap and the Caress'' (short film) * 1988 : ''The Misery Water'' (documentary) * 1990 : ''The Last Voyage'' (short film) * 1991 : ''Mister Foot'' (documentary) * 1992 : ''Africa, I'll pluck you...'' (documentary) * 1996 : ''The Head in the Clouds'' (short film) * 1996 : ''Clando'' (feature film) * 1999 : ''Chef!'' (documentary) * 2000 : ''Holidays at home'' (documentary) * 2002 : ''The Marriage of Alex'' (documentary) * 2004 : ''The colonial misunderstanding'' (documentary) * 2009 : ''Holy Places'' (documentary) * 2013 : ''A Leaf in the Wind'' (documentary), about the life of Ernestine Ouandié<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taoua |first1=Phyllis |title=Jean-Marie Teno, director. Leaf in the Wind. Original title: Une feuille dans le vent. 2013. 55 minutes. In English and French (with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German). Cameroon/France. Raphia Films. €25.00. |journal=African Studies Review |date=April 2015 |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=285–287 |doi=10.1017/asr.2015.29 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/jeanmarie-teno-director-leaf-in-the-wind-original-title-une-feuille-dans-le-vent-2013-55-minutes-in-english-and-french-with-subtitles-in-french-english-spanish-and-german-cameroonfrance-raphia-films-2500/B9468F0BE87458C4167E639F461E05C9 |access-date=5 May 2024 |language=en |issn=0002-0206|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Awards== ''' Clando''' * 1996: Prize of the International Federation of Film Crews at the Friborg International Film Festival (Switzerland); Audience Award at the Milan African Film Festival (Italy); Grand Prize at the Vues d'Afrique Festival of Montreal; Human Rights Award at Montreal's Vues d'Afrique Festival
'''Head in the clouds''' * 1994: OAU Jury Prize at the Carthage Film Days * 1995: IUCN Prize and African Insurers Award at FESPACO; Documentary Award at the Festival Vues d'Afrique de Montréal
'''Africa, I'll pluck you ...''' * 1992: Documentary Award at the Troia Festival; OCIC Jury Prize at the Carthage Film Days; Prize for Solidarity in the world at Carthage Film Days.
'''Water of misery''' * 1989: TV5-Europe Prize at Écovision in Lille; Honorable Mention at the Troia Festival (Portugal)
'''Yellow fever taximan''' *1986: Special mention at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|0879403|name=Jean-Marie Téno}} * Horst Rutsch, [https://www.africanfilmny.org/2014/interview-with-jean-marie-teno/ Interview with Jean-Marie Teno], African Film Festival, Inc., 23 April 2005 * Jean-Marie Teno, [http://africultures.com/writing-on-walls-10003/ Writing on Walls: Documentary, the future of African cinema?], ''Africultures'', 20 March 2011
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Teno, Jean Marie}} Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Cameroonian film directors Category:Cameroonian film producers