Biografia
Jean-Pierre Bekolo, a renowned Cameroonian filmmaker, gained early recognition at the Cannes Film Festival with his debut feature, Quartier Mozart (1992). Known for a playful, comedic, and sardonic style, he represents a new wave of African cinema that challenges restrictive norms by blending genres and combining pop culture with political themes. In 1996, he directed Aristotle's Plot, Africa's contribution to the British Film Institute’s centenary cinema series, alongside works by Scorsese, Bertolucci, Frears, Miller, Reitz, and Godard. This film, part action spoof, part parody of Aristotle’s rules, and part satire on Africa’s self-focus, became the first African film selected at Sundance, establishing Bekolo as a daring and inventive filmmaker.
His avant-garde political thriller Les Saignantes (2005), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, earned two French César nominations in 2009 and is regarded as Africa’s first science fiction movie. Les Saignantes also won the Silver Stallion and Best Actress awards at FESPACO (the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) in 2007. In 2008, Bekolo created the video installation An African Woman in Space, showcased at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris as part of the Diaspora exhibition curated by Claire Denis.
Bekolo’s provocative film Le President, banned in Cameroon in 2013, critically examines the phenomenon of Africa’s “perpetual governments.” His latest work, the four-hour documentary Les Choses et Les Mots de Mudimbe, was selected for the official program of the 2015 Berlinale. Described as “an unusual film, as fascinating as its subject, rich, sensitive, intelligent, and radical,” it marks another milestone in postcolonial, cosmopolitan filmmaking.
In addition to directing, Bekolo is an activist, writer, and educator, teaching at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Duke University. Recently, he has split his time between the USA, France, and Cameroon and was set to join the Artists Program at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin as a fellow starting summer 2015.
