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Les Écrans Noirs: Building a Home for African Cinema
In 1997, he took another pivotal step. Through Écrans Noirs, he helped bring international visibility to African productions and to several generations of filmmakers from the continent. Bassek Ba Kobhio carried this African film festival, based in Yaoundé, on his shoulders for decades— with few resources, a great deal of conviction, and a single-minded belief: that African cinema did not have to beg for a platform. He also set up film classes. With UNESCO. With French cooperation. Young Cameroonians learned to shoot, write, and edit thanks to these institutions he had envisioned. He was also director of the Higher Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Professionals of Central Africa( ISCAC) in Yaoundé, the first institution of higher education dedicated to cinematography in the subregion. In 2009, Jeune Afrique magazine named him one of the fifty personalities shaping Cameroon.
The Death of a Baobab Tree: Tributes from a Mournful Continent
Bassek Ba Kobhio passed away on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, following a battle with heart failure that had lasted several years. Tributes poured in from across French-speaking Africa and beyond. Screenwriter Cynthia Elisabeth wrote:“ Grief for the great family of cinema in Cameroon … A huge loss for all of Cameroon. A giant, an icon, the guiding light of three generations, has bowed out; the Patriarch is gone … May the land of our ancestors welcome you in peace, Papa Bassek.“ David Eboutou, an actor in the film industry, pays tribute to“ a man who was at the heart of most of the major African film productions of the past 30 years,” concluding:“ A titan of the art of filmmaking has fallen.”
Flashmag! Edition 173 Juin 2026
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