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LEADER 00000ngm a2200409 i 4500
003 CaSfKAN
005 20140402113757.0
006 m o c
007 vz uzazuu
007 cr una---unuuu
008 150409p20152003cau062 o vlfre d
028 52 1139693|bKanopy
035 (OCoLC)908378126
040 CaSfKAN|beng|erda|cCaSfKAN
043 e-fr---
099 Streaming Video Kanopy
245 03 Le Silence De La Foret (the Forest).|h[Kanopy electronic
resource]
264 1 [San Francisco, California, USA] :|bKanopy Streaming,
|c2015.
300 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 63 min.) :
|bdigital, .flv file, sound
336 two-dimensional moving image|btdi|2rdacontent
337 computer|bc|2rdamedia
338 online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier
344 digital
347 video file|bMPEG-4|bFlash
500 Title from title frames.
518 Originally produced by California Newsreel in 2003.
520 This film, the first from the Central African Republic,
takes us inside the world of the 'pygmies' or more
properly BaAka. Le silence de la forêt is a film about the
difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to
know and respect another culture. In this case, the
problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over
what to call that 'other.' The subtitles in the film use
the familiar word 'pygmies,' a relatively pejorative
European term; the Bantu or villagers' expression for the
same group, Babingas, carries similar negative
connotations. These highly specialized, tropical
rainforest hunter-gatherers should perhaps be called by
their own ethnonym, Aka, MoAka (sing.) and BaAka (pl.)
'Pygmies' were first introduced to a wide Western reading
public through the now controversial, romanticized account
of Colin Turnbull, The Forest People (1961). This film is
based on the similarly sentimental novel Le silence de la
forêt by Etienne Goyemide. The film stars Eriq Ebouaney,
well-known from playing Lumumba in the film of the same
name, and is scored by Manu Dibango, the Cameroonian music
legend. The fact that this film is the first to focus on
the exploitation and racism between more modern Africans
and an autochthonous people, so ironically reminiscent of
the attitudes of European colonists towards Africans,
makes it even more unusual and fascinating. The film's
hero Gonaba, unlike many Africans educated in Europe,
decides to return to his homeland of the Central African
Republic, full of ideals for fulfilling the promises of
independence. The film fast forwards ten years and we find
a wiser but more disillusioned Gonaba who realizes he has
accomplished nothing. If anything he has become just
another parasitical bureaucrat entitled to his own servant,
comfortable house and sexual dalliances. In the novel, he
is more critically portrayed although he is patterned
after the author, a tireless educational reformer in the
Central African Republic who recently died of HIV-AIDS.
Gonaba's dissatisfaction comes to a head at an
Independence Day celebration where he scornfully comments
there is nothing to celebrate but corruption. He refuses
to wear a European suit which he feels just mimics their
colonial predecessors. At the festivities there is a dance
performed by some BaAka during which one of the guests
contemptuously throws food for them to scramble over like
dogs. The Prefect later refers to them as animals and
calls them tourist attractions. The next day on a visit to
a rural school, Gonaba is again confronted by his
ineffectualness. Rather than talk about education he must
settle conflicts about the sexual misconduct of teachers
with their students. The village chief has an Aka 'slave'
named Manga, whom he mistreats, raising Gonaba's
indignation once again. He reminds Manga that he is a
citizen and that all people are equal as the founder of
the Central African Republic, Barthélemy Boganda, preached
. (The subtitles refer to Manga as a 'slave' but he might
better be called a 'client' of a 'patron.') In any case
Gonaba 'buys' him from the chief and convinces Manga to
take him to his village where Gonaba hopes to meet some
people so 'primitive' that they still have their integrity
in tact. At the same time he can educate them with what he
takes for granted as the universal wisdom of the
Enlightenment. Deserted by Manga who knows that the real
path to power lies in a military career, Gonaba stumbles
into a net trap and arrives at the village unconscious.
Restored to health with traditional medicines, his
'civilizing mission' encounters a notable lack of
enthusiasm from the BaAka. They can see no point in
learning to read and write French; they already have the
knowledge they need to be successful rainforest hunter-
gatherers. Gonaba further flouts local custom by building
his well-ventilated rectangular (not round) house on
sacred land - exhibiting, the same disrespect for sacred
soil that alienates the hero of Bassek ba Kobhio's earlier
film Sango Malo from the villagers he is trying to
liberate. Gonaba does manage to meet, marry and have a
child with a young MoAka, named Kali. Despite unpromising
omens, he and the other men of the tribe set out on his
initiation ritual, an elephant hunt. A ferocious storm
strikes and Kali is fatally wounded when a trees falls on
her. Ironically her last word is the one French expression
she has learned, bouche, as she asks Gonaba for a final
kiss. The villagers condemn Gonaba to death by tying him
to a tree for wild beasts to eat; he is helped to escape
and the film ends with his return to the city. As the
sounds of urban life rise on the soundtrack, he says he
will never forget 'le silence de la fôret.' It would be a
mistake to equate the naiveté of the protagonist with the
attitude of the two filmmakers. Bassek ba Kobhio's former
films, Sango Malo and Le grand Blanc de Lambaréné both
center on well-intentioned characters, the teacher Malo
and Albert Schweitzer respectively, who are partially
thwarted in their missions by their own sense of cultural
superiority. This film shows how Gonaba's attraction to
Rousseau's concept of the 'noble savage' masks a deeply
embedded cultural condescension. There is no noble savage,
only different cultures adapted to their own environments
with more or less success; modernism might be said to be a
culture whose environment is predominantly man (and woman)
made. In the course of the film we are told the Aka
creation myth. Rude and disobedient, the Great Spirit
exiled the BaAka to the forest. Their playmates, the
chimpanzees (the sub-title 'gorilla' is inaccurate, taught
them how to make fire; for this transgression the
chimpanzees lost their tails. In the ecological system in
which the BaAka live, chimpanzees are recognized as
occupying an intermediate position between animals and
humans. In this interesting variant on the Prometheus
legend, alienation from the natural order through the
acquisition of culture or technology comes at the very
inception of human life. There is no innocence, no
escaping culture, not even in the rainforest. Nor is there
silence in the forest - just the sounds of animals and the
speech of the garrulous BaAka - for those who are prepared
to listen for them. In a post-modern world, freedom is not
to be free of culture, but to be able to select one's
culture and, above all, to reject and change that culture
to provide greater freedom and fulfillment. Today the
Biaka are increasingly threatened by roads opening their
territory to loggers who destroy the habitat to which
their hunter-gatherer culture has so superbly adapted
them. "This is a brave, dramatic film, relying on
convincing performances from actual pygmies...The
astounding effect achieved is reminiscent of the Canadian
film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). Beautifully composed,
the strength of this film is in its authenticity to place
and the glimpse it provides into a hidden world." - Planet
Africa "This beautifully made pic is a powerful African
production, a fascinating excursion into a little-seen
world. The film develops into an unusual journey of
discovery. Impeccably made, with a high level of technical
expertise." - Variety "An admirable result for the first
ever film from its country...Big box-office results at
home are sadly unlikely: the single cinema in the Central
African Republic has, apparently, closed down." - Screen
Daily.com
538 Mode of access: World Wide Web.
650 0 Babinga (African people)|vDrama|zAfrica|zCentral African
Republic.
650 0 Social Customs|vDrama|zAfrica|zCentral African Republic.
655 7 Feature films.|2lcgft
700 1 Bassek Ba Kobhio|d1957-|efilm director.
700 1 Ouenangare, Didier |d1953-2006|efilm director.
700 1 Ebouaney, Eriq |d1967-|eactor.
710 2 Kanopy (Firm)
856 40 |uhttps://naperville.kanopy.com/node/139694|zAvailable on
Kanopy
856 42 |zCover Image|uhttps://www.kanopy.com/node/139694/external
-image