All attendees to events at La Maison Française of NYU must provide proof of vaccination and booster in advance of their visit. Information on uploading vaccination will be sent following your RSVP.
RSVP In-person HERE
In cooperation with Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Villa Albertine, La Maison Française of NYU is honored to host a special screening of Le Damier, Papa National Oye! with Director Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda present. A conversation with Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, moderated by Dr. Boukary Sawadogo, will follow the screening.
The film will also be screened at the 60th annual New York Film Festival October 1 at 6:00 pm info here
Set in a fictitious African country, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda’s meticulously composed medium-length comedy recounts the tale of the country’s president—the founder and “first citizen” of his nation—settling in for an all-night game of checkers.
(1996) Dir. Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda.
Democratic Republic of Congo
40 minutes
French with English subtitles
Restored in 2K in 2021 by NYU Tisch, in association with Villa Albertine – French Embassy in the United States and the Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut français.
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda
From Kinshasa, Congo, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda is the director of numerous films, including a documentary on Thomas Sankara. He studied sociology, history (contemporary & art) and philosophy in Brussels and trained in cinema in France, England and the United States.
Writer, poet, screenwriter, director and producer, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda has written texts and analyzes on “African cinema” and has also written several articles on how black people are perceived through cinema and television in the West. He is also a film teacher in several places around the world, and in Africa in particular. In 2006-2007, he was invited by New York University (NYU-Ghana) to teach cinema. His films are internationally renowned: Le Damier, Papa National Oye! (listed as a masterpiece), Article 15Bis, Afro@Digital and Juju Factory have all won prestigious awards.
Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda is one of the most influential cinema personalities in Africa. Founding member and President of the African Guild of Directors and Producers, he created the Thomas Sankara Prize, awarded to a short film at Fespaco since 2015.
With his company BK&A and his flag “La Manufacture de l’imaginaire” (engineering of innovative ideas), he develops film and television projects on major African historical figures.
from 2020 to 2022, He was commissioned by the Congolese government to organize the Patrice Lumumba Memorial, a repatriation program for the remains of the Pan-African Hero detained in Belgium since 1961. He is currently in the production of an important documentary film on Patrice Lumumba.
Boukary Sawadogo (moderator)
Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Black Studies at CUNY. As an African cinemas scholar and media professional, Dr Boukary Sawadogo’s multifaceted work seeks to give voice and presence work to film/media productions that developed outside of hegemonic paradigms of Hollywood cinema model. Dr. Sawadogo has published extensively on African cinema, including film reviews, articles, book chapters, and books. His three single-authored books on African cinema are required readings in several courses on African cinema that are taught at American universities. These books are: West African Screen Media: Comedy, TV Series, and Transnationalization (Michigan State University Press, 2019), African Film Studies: An Introduction (Routledge, 2018), Les cinémas francophones ouest africains, 1990-2005 (Harmattan, 2013) Dr. Boukary Sawadogo has regularly appeared in the media to speak about cinema and media in Africa, Harlem, and African immigrants in the United States. He has experience serving as jury member in film festivals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. Dr. Sawadogo is also a regular guest speaker at universities, and research and cultural organizations. Beyond film and media industries, Dr. Boukary Sawadogo's work is widening in scope and depth to interrogate the place and trajectory of Africa today in the world through the diasporas. In this respect, he has authored Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story (2022) with Fordham University Press.
