2007年VOA标准英语-Senegalese Filmmaker Ousmane Sembene Mourned in

By Selah Hennessy
Dakar
11 June 2007

Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene is being buried in Dakar as praise is being showered from across the world on his career. Selah Hennessy reports from Dakar his death at the age of 84 also leaves a void, revealing how little success there is in Africa's withering² film industry.

Ousmane Sembene (2005 file)

As he received an award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 1993, Sembene explained the process behind his films.

He said most often his ideas come simply from meeting ordinary people, and listening to them. He said what is more important is constructing a good story from beginning to end.

Sembene often compared himself to traditional African storytellers, who record memories of daily lives and events, and through their stories can cement societies.

The New York Times, one amongst many African and international media outlets³ to pay tribute to the artist, says Sembene was a "crucial figure in Africa's postcolonial cultural awakening⁴."

"He was the first one to treat Africa as something real, as a territory belonging to Africans, telling African stories," said Jean Roy, a French film critic.

Roy says that with Sembene's death, Africa has lost its cinematic father.

"Sembene was certainly the most important African film maker¹ from a historical point of view," he said. "He was the founder⁵ of African cinema."

"Ousmane Sembene is our father, he is the father of African cinema," said Adams Sie, a young Senegalese film maker. "We love his work, we inspired a lot from him. He is a legend."

He says that Sembene has died at a time when Senegalese cinema is doing very badly.

"Senegalese cinema is dying, dying very badly," he said. "Because there is no cinema where we can project our films and the media, the television, they do not want to show the films we are making here."

He says there is a lot of cinematic creativity in Senegal now, but little money and no infrastructure⁶.

"We do not have any network to hold us together, everyone is working independently," he said. "We have to work together and do things in common for our own interest."

The film maker also wrote novels, including the widely-acclaimed God's Bits of Wood, which told the story of a strike staged by railway workers during the 1940s.

1 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

2 withering   

使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的

参考例句：

• She gave him a withering look. 她极其蔑视地看了他一眼。
• The grass is gradually dried-up and withering and pallen leaves. 草渐渐干枯、枯萎并落叶。

3 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

5 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。