Documentary
Il était une fois Libreville
Simon Augé · 1972
Synopsis
A history of Libreville, from its founding to the early 1970s, and of the stages of its growth. The film returns to the colonisation of Gabon and to the real context of the 1839 treaty, signed between Antchuwè Kowè Rapotchombo, known as King Denis, chief of the left bank of the estuary, and Lieutenant Bouët-Willaumez: France obtained two leagues of land on that bank, the beginning of a colonisation lasting more than a century.
Context
Made for national television, the film mixes interviews, documents and reconstructed scenes, and takes a critical look at the first years of independence. It runs fifty minutes, on 16 millimetre and in black and white, according to Africiné; another record gives it an hour and a half and says it is in colour. Among the performers is Pierre-Marie Dong, another pioneer of Gabonese cinema; the music is by Martin Rompavet.
Who it is for
A historical documentary in French, accessible again since its rediscovery by the Gabonese archives.
Prizes and reception
Screened at the Amiens International Film Festival in 2011, then at the 2012 retrospective of Gabonese cinema, after nearly thirty years of invisibility.
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