In a country which really has no more than 5 cinemas in its capital, it was necessary to be creative, inventive to make 363 screenings during FESPACO 2023, estimated Friday the general delegate Moussa Alex Sawadogo.

“How did we manage to screen 363 screenings in a country that really doesn’t have more than 5 cinemas in its capital? So you had to be creative, inventive. And that required strategies,” said FESPACO’s general delegate in the public daily Sidwaya on Friday.

The General Delegate of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) spoke during a report interview published this Friday in the public daily Sidwaya.

“At each edition of FESPACO, we have to finance and equip certain spaces. Which costs us a lot of money to be able to project in the city of Ouagadougou and also to make it so that it is very beautiful projections, “he said and continued.

“We have creators, directors and producers who are very demanding and when you screen films in competition, you have to ensure that the quality of the screenings is identical. Otherwise, it can always lead to debates like “my film was poorly screened”, “the screening was not good”, etc. »

Moussa Alex Sawadogo informed that “FESPACO spends a lot of money to equip these spaces. Today, it is true that a film is easy to produce, but it is expensive to project. That’s why we talk about digital. Digital is easy, but in terms of projection quality, it requires a lot of things”.

He explained that “today, spectators know the quality of sound, projection, light, image and others” and continued: “We are really in front of an audience, of cinephiles very savvy. Today, the State cannot do everything because the cinema is already a big job for it”.

The General Delegate wondered why businessmen do not invest in cinemas, stating that “a cinema is a space, it is projection equipment, multifunctional rooms, etc “.

He lamented that “we Burkinabè, on the contrary, prefer to invest in housing” and he encouraged businessmen to “try to invest in cinemas to see the results in 2 to 5 years”. “There will be a positive impact”, in his opinion while considering that “today, we have a population that wants to see films”.

“I take advantage of your channel to launch an appeal to businessmen to tell them that the cinema industry is beneficial. They must take the risk of investing in collaboration with cinema operators or with the State to build cinemas, spaces that can be multifunctional,” said Mr. Sawadogo in the columns of Sidwaya.

For the 28th edition of FESPACO, 8 cinemas have been requisitioned for the screening of the 170 films selected.

These were the deliberation and marriage rooms of the central town hall, the Burkinabè Chargers Council (CBC), the National Arts, Entertainment and Audiovisual Center (CENASA), the Burkina and Neerwaya cinemas, the Canal Olympia (Yennenga and Idrissa Ouedraogo).

Source: Burkina Information Agency