Ousmane Sembene

Director, Screenwriter

About

Also Known As

Sembène Ousmane

Birth Place

Ziguinchor, SN

Born

January 01, 1923

Died

June 09, 2007

Cause of Death

Undisclosed Illness

Filmography

Photos & Videos

View All

Black Girl (1966) -- (Movie Clip) It All Began That Morning

Black Girl (1966) -- (Movie Clip) Will Someone Be Waiting For Me?

Family & Companions

Carrie Moore

Wife

Married in 1974.

Bibliography

"A Call to Action: The Films of Ousemane Sembene"

Sheila Petty (editor), Praeger (1996)

"The Cinema of Ousemane Sembene, a Pioneer of Black African Film"

Francoise Pfaff, Greenwood Press (1984)

Biography

Filmography

Life Events

1940

With Free French Army's Sengalese sharpshooters

1956

Published first novel, "The Black Docker"

1963

Made first film (unreleased documentary) for the government of Mali

1963

Made first short fiction film, "Cart Owner"

1966

Directed first feature, "Black Girl"

1968

First film in Wolof (native Sengalese tongue) "The Money Order/Mandabi"

1972

Founded Wolof monthly magazine, Kaddu

1974

Scripted and directed "Xala"

1977

Wrote, directed and appeared in "Ceddo"; film was banned in Senegal

1987

First film in a decade, co-directed and wrote "Camp de Thiaroye", about the slaughter of African war veterans at the hands of the French

1992

Produced, directed and wrote "Guelwaar", which focused on an accidental body swap of a Muslim and a Catholic at a morgue

2000

Returned to filmmaking after eight year absence with "Faat-Kine"

Videos

Black Girl (1966) -- (Movie Clip) It All Began That Morning The first flashback to home in Dakar, Senegal, with the writer-director Ousmane Sembene’s cameo, as the “public letter writer,” Mbissine Thérèse Diop, as Diouana, who now works for a French couple in Antibes, narrates the beginning of her story, in the multiple international award-winning Black Girl (a.k.a. La Noire de…, 1966.

Black Girl (1966) -- (Movie Clip) Will Someone Be Waiting For Me? After shots establishing the French port at Antibes, our first look at the title character, Mbissine Thérèse Diop, as Diouana, arriving from Senegal, collected by her employer (Robert Fontaine), in the celebrated first feature by Dakar-born Ousmane Sembene, by then an established international novelist, from Black Girl (a.k.a. La Noire de…, 1966.

Black Girl (1966) -- (Movie Clip) I've Never Kissed A Black Woman Mbissine Thérèse Diop, as Diouana, several weeks into her work at the home of a French couple in Antibes, where she understood she would be caring for their children, is insulted by “Madame” (Anne-Marie Jelinck), then narrates her frustration, when she’s required to cook, early in writer-director Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl (a.k.a. La Noire de…, 1966.

Xala (1975) -- (Movie Clip) And Straddle A Pestle? The first two wives (Seune Samb, Younouss Seye) of the hero (Thierno Leye) chat during the preliminaries before he marries a third (Myriam Niang), her mother pushing a tribal potency practice, in Senegalese novelist and film-maker Ousmane Sembene's award-winning political comedy Xala, 1975.

Xala (1975) -- (Movie Clip) Our Indepencence Is Complete Almost cruel comedy, the Senegalese writer and director Ousmane Sembene using his native country as a nameless African state, as locals led by Kebe (Makhouredia Gueye) gently oust colonial officials, opening the internationally acclaimed Xala, 1975.

Xala (1975) -- (Movie Clip) This Box Is Full Of Gold The new local officials, bought-off by their colonial predecessors and switched to Western garb, followed by the opening credits, then the mother whose daughter will become the hero's third wife, bragging, from Senegalese writer-director Ousmane Sembene's Xala, 1975.

Companions

Carrie Moore

Wife

Married in 1974.

Bibliography

"A Call to Action: The Films of Ousemane Sembene"

Sheila Petty (editor), Praeger (1996)

"The Cinema of Ousemane Sembene, a Pioneer of Black African Film"

Francoise Pfaff, Greenwood Press (1984)

About

Filmography

Photos & Videos

Family & Companions

Bibliography

Biography

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

Cast (Feature Film)

Writer (Feature Film)

Producer (Feature Film)

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Director (Short)

Writer (Short)

Life Events

1940

1956

1963

1963

1966

1968

1972

1974

1977

1987

1992

2000

Videos

Movie Clip

Companions

Bibliography

TCM Emails