Inoussa Ousseini, pioneer of documentary film in Africa, dies

Inoussa Ousseini, filmmaker, former minister and Niger's ambassador to Unesco, died Tuesday, January 5 in Paris, at the age of 72.

Photo taken in 2017 © RFI / Antoinette Delafin

Text by: RFI Follow

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Inoussa Ousseini, filmmaker, sociologist, former minister and Niger's ambassador to Unesco, died this Tuesday, January 5 in Paris, at the age of 72.

A pioneer of documentary film in Africa, he was also one of the founding members of the Jean Rouch foundation.

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He had been one of Jean Rouch's traveling companions.

It was at the Niamey film club that Inoussa Ousseïni, then a 15-year-old high school student, met the ethnologist filmmaker.

The latter takes him under his wing.

Arrived in France in 1968, the young aspiring director passed his baccalaureate and then enrolled at the Faculty of Letters in Tours while following his mentor's courses at the Cinémathèque in Paris.

Thanks to him, he will meet all the best in French ethnology and sociology, in particular the researcher Robert Jaulin, who advises him to study Europeans, by doing ethnology on the French.

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To read also: 

Inoussa Ousseini: "Jean Rouch traced the furrows of my life"

Inoussa Ousseini thus directed

La Sangsue

, a film on the sexuality of the French, then

Paris is pretty

, on the experiences of an African who entered France illegally.

The film won the Critics' Prize at the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco) in 1976.

Back in Niger, he was entrusted with the management of the audiovisual department of the CNRS in Niamey, created by Jean Rouch.

At the same time, he accompanies the filmmaker in his missions inside the country and continues to shoot his own films:

Ganga

,

Fantasia

or even traditional popular festivals of Niger.

In 2004, Ousseini was appointed Ambassador of Niger to Unesco.

He founded the Niamey African Documentary Film Forum, which was first held in December 2006.

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