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Cinema of Niger

The Cinema of Niger began in the 1940s with the ethnographical documentary of French director Jean Rouch, before growing to become one of the most active national film cultures in Francophone Africa in the 1960s-70s with the work of filmmakers such as Oumarou Ganda, Moustapha Alassane and Gatta Abdourahamne. The industry has slowed somewhat since the 1980s, though films continue to be made in the country, with notable directors of recent decades including Mahamane Bakabe, Inoussa Ousseini, Mariama Hima, Moustapha Diop and Rahmatou Keïta. Unlike neighbouring Nigeria, with its thriving Hausa and English-language film industries, most Nigerien films are made in French with Francophone countries as their major market, whilst action and light entertainment films from Nigeria or dubbed western films fill most Nigerien theatres.

1940s-1950s: Colonial beginnings
The first Nigerien films were made in the 1940s, when Niger was still under French rule as part of French West Africa. Jean Rouch, a French ethnographic filmmaker, is generally considered 'the father of Nigerien film'. Rouch made his first film in Niger in 1947, with the short documentary Au Pays des Mages Noirs (In the Land of Black Mages), going on to make a number of similar short ethnographic documentaries, such as Les Magiciens de Wanzarbé (1948), Initiation à la danse des possédés (Initiation to the Dance of the Possessed; 1949) and ''Chasse à l'hippopotame (Hippopotamus Chase''; 1950). During the 1950s, Rouch began to produce longer, narrative films. In 1954 he filmed Damouré Zika in Jaguar as a young Songhai man travelling for work to the Gold Coast (modern Ghana). Filmed as a silent ethnographic piece, Zika helped re-edit the film into a feature-length movie which stood somewhere between documentary and fiction, and provided dialog and commentary for a 1967 release. In 1957 Rouch directed in Côte d'Ivoire Moi un noir with the young Nigerian filmmaker Oumarou Ganda. == 1960s-1970s: A golden age of Nigerien film ==
1960s-1970s: A golden age of Nigerien film
Niger gained independence from France in August 1960; the 60s saw the development of the careers of two of the most prominent Nigerien film-makers - Moustapha Alassane and Oumarou Ganda. Another Nigerien filmmaker of this period was Gatta Abdourahamne; in 1979 he won the ''Caméra d'or at FESPACO for his film Gossi''. Jean Rouch, who had stayed in Niger following independence, also continued to produce drama films in this period, including Petit à petit (Little by Little; 1971), Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet (Cocka-doodle-doo Mr. Chicken; 1974) and Babatu (1976), as well as continuing to make ethnographic shorts. ==1980s-present: Decline and growth==
1980s-present: Decline and growth
Since the 1980s Nigerien film-making has slowed somewhat, in part due to weakening state sector financing, as well as due to the growth of lighter action and romance films, especially the Hausa language film industry of neighbouring Nigeria. In 1994, Nigerien producer/director Ousmane Ilbo Mahamane founded the Niamey African Film Meeting (Rencontres du cinéma africain de Niamey, RECAN) as a biennial festival without prizes and also a centre for film-making and film studies. It tells the story of a struggling musician from Agadez and is loosely based on Purple Rain. Other notable figures working in the contemporary Nigerien film industry include the actress Zalika Souley, who won the Insignes du mérite culturel at the 1990 Carthage Film Festival and the directors Rahmatou Keïta (''Al'lèèssi... Une actrice africaine, 2005; The Wedding Ring (2016 film), aka Zin'naariya, 2016), Malam Saguirou (La Robe du temps, 2008) and Sani Elhadj Magori (Pour le meilleur et pour l'oignon!, 2008; Koukan Kourcia (Le cri de la tourterelle)'', 2011). ==List of Nigerien films==
List of Nigerien films
See: List of Nigerien films ==References==
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