Bekolo Biography
16.1.05
Bekolo as secret agent man
Jean Pierre Bekolo, the noted African film director known as the "secret agent man," Bekolo subverts the conventions and didacticism of African film and literature with an aesthetic that "tosses it all merrily together."
Bekolo, a Francophone Cameroonian, is the director of "Quartier Mozart", which won prizes at film festivals in Cannes, Locarno, and Montreal. It was nominated, in 1993, for a British Film Institute award, along with Quentin Tarrantino's "Reservoir Dogs." The film mixes sorcery and urban realities in a satire of male and female roles. It's style is playful, comic, and sardonic.
"Aristotle's Plot," his most recent feature film," started out as the African entry in the British Film Institute's series of films commemorating the centenary of cinema Part meditation on the trials of African filmmaking, part action movie send-up, part parody of Aristotle's rules, part satire on Africa's preoccupation with itself, this film shows Bekolo to be an "increasingly fearless trickster."
The British Film Institute also invited such directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, Stephen Frears, Martin Scorsese, Anne-Marie Mieville & Jean-Luc Godard, and Edgar Reitz. But instead of turning in a respectful documentary, as Martin Scorsese did for the U.S. and Stephan Frears did for Britain, Bekolo rendered a wild hybrid "that is certain to be the most talked about African film of the year."
"Aristotle's Plot" was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1997. Bekolo's films have also appeared at film festivals in England, Ireland, France, India, Israel, Burkina Faso, Canada and throughout the U.S.-- in New York, Chicago, L.A., Washington, and Phildelphia. At only 36, Bekolo has already worked in TV , he has taught film at Virginia Tech and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work is the subject of more than 20 academic books.
Bekolo knows African and Western film well, and he knows most of the other "recognized" directors from Africa.
Bekolo's current film project is titled, "Les Saignantes", a horror movie on sexual politics.
Bekolo, a Francophone Cameroonian, is the director of "Quartier Mozart", which won prizes at film festivals in Cannes, Locarno, and Montreal. It was nominated, in 1993, for a British Film Institute award, along with Quentin Tarrantino's "Reservoir Dogs." The film mixes sorcery and urban realities in a satire of male and female roles. It's style is playful, comic, and sardonic.
"Aristotle's Plot," his most recent feature film," started out as the African entry in the British Film Institute's series of films commemorating the centenary of cinema Part meditation on the trials of African filmmaking, part action movie send-up, part parody of Aristotle's rules, part satire on Africa's preoccupation with itself, this film shows Bekolo to be an "increasingly fearless trickster."
The British Film Institute also invited such directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, Stephen Frears, Martin Scorsese, Anne-Marie Mieville & Jean-Luc Godard, and Edgar Reitz. But instead of turning in a respectful documentary, as Martin Scorsese did for the U.S. and Stephan Frears did for Britain, Bekolo rendered a wild hybrid "that is certain to be the most talked about African film of the year."
"Aristotle's Plot" was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1997. Bekolo's films have also appeared at film festivals in England, Ireland, France, India, Israel, Burkina Faso, Canada and throughout the U.S.-- in New York, Chicago, L.A., Washington, and Phildelphia. At only 36, Bekolo has already worked in TV , he has taught film at Virginia Tech and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work is the subject of more than 20 academic books.
Bekolo knows African and Western film well, and he knows most of the other "recognized" directors from Africa.
Bekolo's current film project is titled, "Les Saignantes", a horror movie on sexual politics.
Archives
January 2005 June 2005 July 2005 January 2006 April 2006
