Richard De Medeiros

Last updated
Richard De Medeiros
Born1940
Ouidah
NationalityBeninese
Occupationfilm director

Richard De Medeiros (born 1940) is a Beninese film director. [1]

Contents

Life

Richard De Medeiros was born 1940 in Ouidah, and studied literature in Cotonou and Paris. [1] He later taught literature at the National University of Benin in Cotonou, specializing in surrealism. [2]

De Medeiros made two documentaries and a short feature film before his first feature film. [1] The King died in exile was made while he was teaching at the Institut de Journalisme in Algiers. [2] It looked at Béhanzin, the last king of Dahomey, exiled by the French colonial powers to Martinique. [3] His short film Teke, Hymne au Borgou reappropriated ethnographic codes of filmmaking, blending them with elements of oral tradition and griot narrative style. [4] The Newcomer (1976) was Benin's second feature film. It focussed on the clash between Senou, a corrupt civil servant, and Ahouenou, a newcomer who wants to clean things up. After Senou resorts to witchcraft and Agouenou suffers an accident, Agouenou tries to gain acceptance by undergoing magical initiation.. [3]

De Medeiros was an influence on younger Beninese filmmakers like François Sourou Okioh. He created a film club, Association du 7e art, and a cultural review, Perspectives 7. [5] In the early 1980s he was interviewed by Pierre Haffner, participating in the debates among African filmmakers about the extent to which Jean Rouch's cinematic practice escaped its colonial context. [6]

In 1980 he was filmed as a subject for Gérard Courant's Cinématon . [7]

Films

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Roy Armes (2008). "De Medeiros, Richard". Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University Press. p. 56. ISBN   0-253-35116-2.
  2. 1 2 Angela Martin (1982). African Films, the Context of Production. British Film Institute. p. 50.
  3. 1 2 FESPACO; L'Association des Trois Mondes (2000). "De Medeiros, Richard". Les cinémas d'Afrique: dictionnaire. KARTHALA Editions. p. 146. ISBN   978-2-84586-060-5.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Kahana (2016). The Documentary Film Reader: History, Theory, Criticism. Oxford University Press. p. 1341. ISBN   978-0-19-045932-1.
  5. ↑ Isac A. YAÏ, Entretien avec François Sourou Okioh, Cinéaste béninois : « L’aventure dans ce beau métier continue avec ses joies et ses peines… », Fraternité, 1 October 2020.
  6. ↑ Pierre Haffner, 'Jean Rouch jugé par six cineastes d'Afrique noire', CinémAction, Vol. 17. pp.62–76.
  7. ↑ N°86 Richard de Medeiros
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