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Safi Faye
A pioneering Senegalese filmmaker who brought village life and women’s experiences to African cinema.
Kaddu Beykat · Fad’jal
- Born
- 22 November 1943
- Birthplace
- Senegal
- Died
- 22 February 2023
More people
Safi Faye
Safi Faye combined ethnographic research with storytelling. Her films listened to rural communities, using their daily work, memories and conversations as the substance of cinema.
Early life
Dakar and Fad’jal
Born in Dakar to a Serer family with roots in the village of Fad’jal.
Teaching first
Trained as a teacher in Rufisque before entering film.
Career
- 1966
Encounter with cinema
Met filmmaker Jean Rouch at Dakar’s World Festival of Negro Arts.
- 1972
First short
Directed La Passante after studying in Paris.
- 1975
Feature breakthrough
Released Kaddu Beykat, filmed in her family’s village.
- 1996
Fiction at Cannes
Mossane screened in Un Certain Regard.
Selected work
Kaddu Beykat
Blends village testimony with a story about farming and migration.
Fad’jal
Records a community’s oral history and traditions.
Mossane
A young woman resists an arranged marriage.
Beyond work
Ethnology
Pursued advanced ethnological research alongside filmmaking.
Community voices
Preferred to place women within the wider relationships of village life.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Arsenal: Kaddu Beykat ↗Photo: Olivier Barlet. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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