flora gomes
cinema as redemption of a people
Flora Gomes, born in 1949. Director of international fame, but first of all son of Guinea Bissau. His is a political film, of commitment, in which the eye of the camera is the soft brush of a painter intent on painting the portrait of a people fighting for its freedom. An eye always in the facts, in the History "en train de se faire". An attentive and passionate look, like an historic of the present, and at the same time participating and builder of tomorrow.
“My films are nothing but a reflection on society of this continent, with a special eye on Guinea Bissau. My film wants to tell the positive aspects of our land, to prove that in addition to drug trafficking, corruption, poverty, exist another Guinea Bissau. A country that dreams, that knows how to laugh, dance, passionate”.
The work of Flora Gomes rooted in the director's relationship with Amilcar Cabral, founder of PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) and father of the liberation struggle from Portugal in 1973.
Flora Gomes was very close to Cabral and active in the party, so as to regard it as a father. A reference point that will be central to his cinematographic story: “with him I learned the values of humanism, the ability to set aside the staff for the collective, the part for the whole”.
When it was proclaimed the independence of Guinea Bissau, in fact, Flora (on the return from film studies in Cuba) was there. With his eyes behind the camera and fingers on the lens, not to miss even a second of what will be one of the most important historic moments for the country.
"We are Africans, but we are different from other people of Africa, because we won our independence by themselves. It is a unique case in the history of the African continent. This shows the intelligence and the greatness of Amilcar Cabral and our people".
With A República de Mininus, a film set in an unspecified African country inhabited only by children, the director expresses his hope in young people, the future of the whole of Africa and Guinea Bissau. “When I was young, was always talking about tomorrow, tomorrow will be better. Young people of Guinea Bissau, today, are much more educated and they have tools in abundance compared with us. This generation has Internet and all its potential. Our moral duty is to teach them hope. You can overcome the difficulties. It's just a matter of time.
Guinendadi is a new word, according to Flora Gomes, but which indicates a very dear concept to Cabral: to be, to feel, Guineans. To be part of a community where everyone has to do his bit to help develop the country.
“A nation is not built overnight. In Guinea Bissau, there are many different ethnic groups, who don’t even speak the same language. It was not easy to find the key, but in the end - thanks to the struggle for liberation and the Creole - we did it. It is like painting a picture and know that we are all in there”.
"Guinendadi is a cry of hope for what we are and what we become. The same force, the same sacrifice that have pulled out of the men and women who have sacrificed their lives for a greater goal, the liberation of the country. We were big and we will continue to be big".
The project in progress of director concerns the collective memory. A choral story made by the memories of all those people who knew and worked with Cabral in the most difficult moments. “The point is to investigate why in a country of 36,000 square meters, with people mostly illiterate, we managed to make a fight like that, because we understood each other and we were able to overcome the difficulties”.
