Samba Gadjigo in person!

SEMBENE!, a feature-length documentary, tells the unbelievable true story of Ousmane Sembène, the self-taught novelist and filmmaker who fought a 50-year-long battle to return African stories to Africans. Born in 1923 and raised in the traditions of the Lebou and Seres cultures of Senegal, Sembène set out to become the storyteller for a new Africa. He did this by telling politically aware and culturally relevant stories about the everyday lives of modern Africans. His early novels, drawing upon his experience as a dockworker and labor organizer, gained international attention. Sembène later went on to study filmmaking in Moscow. 

Samba Gadjigo is the author of the official biography, Ousmane Sembène: The Making of a Militant Artist. He is professor of African Studies and French at Mt. Holyoke College, where he has taught since 1986.

PURCHASE TICKET HERE

Co-presented by The Department of Africana Studies and The Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and The Department of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University.    

Producers' Forums are supported by the National Endowment fot the Arts, PNC Arts Alive, Philadelhpia Cultural Fund, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

^{THE PREMIERE SCREENING IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PHILADELPHIA.}