Moustapha Alassane, Pioneer of the Golden Age of Nigerien Cinema

Bon Voyage Sim / Le Retour d’un aventurier (The Return of an Adventurer) / Les Cowboys sont noirs (The Cowboys Are Black)
PURCHASE TICKETS

Co-presented with Scribe Video Center

Bon Voyage Sim 
(Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1966, 16mm, 5 min., French, Hausa w/English subtitles)
Monsieur Sim, the president of the Republic of Toads, receives a scoundrel’s welcome from his citizenry after returning from a luxury holiday abroad (disguised as a diplomatic mission).

Followed by: 

Le Retour d’un aventurier (The Return of an Adventurer)
(Dir. Moustapha Alassane, Niger, 1966, 16mm, 34 min., French, Hausa w/English subtitles)
With Ibrahim Yacouba, Zalika Souley, Abdou Nani, Djingarey Maiga. One of Alassane’s most celebrated films, this homage to the American Western follows a band of wannabe outlaws who ransack a Nigerien village.

Followed by:

Les Cowboys sont noirs (The Cowboys Are Black) 
(Dir. Serge Moati, France, 1966, 16mm, 15 min. French, Hausa w/English subtitles)
Scenes from the production of Alassane’s The Return of an Adventurer, the first African Western. On weekdays, the cowboys are taxi drivers and mechanics; on weekends, they’re hipster cowboys enacting fantasies of tearing up the town.