Afrique 50

France’s first anti-colonialist film was initially commissioned to portray the colonies for educational purposes. “I shot Afrique 50 in 1949 and 1950 in French West Africa. Early on, I faced the prohibitions of french authorities: the film was sentenced to destruction by the colonial court of Bobo-Dioulasso, negatives were seized and destroyed, and I was sentenced to a year in prison. I still managed to save a third of the reels.” The film was banned for 40 years.