Vlad Dima (Syracuse University, USA)

This presentation is drawn from my recent book on the seminal film, Black Girl, by Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene (Bloomsbury/BFI Film Classics, June 2025). I posit that the film is a map on which one can trace Sembene’s career, simultaneously moving backwards into his literary career and moving forwards into his groundbreaking filmic career. A key question emerges from this consideration: if Black Girl could be considered the very spark that ignited the entire field of African cinemas, how far might this map extend? I frame Black Girl as Sembene’s most consequential film and as a film that potentially maps out the future of African cinemas (in which we currently live). More specifically, this presentation will focus on the film’s sonic frames and its visual echoes. It will begin by analyzing the film’s use of sound and voice (the sonic frames) and then it will explain the film’s legacy in the contemporary by way of visual frames and echoes.