Africa-Press – Angola. Angolan filmmaker Zezé Gamboa was, on Saturday, honored at the 11th edition of the Dakhla International Film Festival, for his achievements in the cinematographic world inside and outside the country.
The homage to Zezé Gamboa took place during the opening of the festival with the showing of his two films “O Herói” and “O Grande Kilapy”, both produced by the Portuguese, Fernando Vendrell.
For this reason, in a note sent Monday, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Filipe Zau, congratulated the filmmaker, having expressed his satisfaction with the relevant role he has been playing in favor of the seventh art in the country.
Filipe Zau said he hoped that the performance level of Zezé Gamboa’s journey will continue to be an inspiring source for the growth of cinema and audiovisual in Angola.
Zézé Gamboa is one of the second generation Angolan filmmakers who boasts an internationally recognized career, starting in Africa, both in the documentary genre and in fiction, whose works have been worthy of awards and good reception from the public and critics.
Of his generation, the filmmaker marks Angolan critical cinema, and emerges as a pioneer of a cinematography that analyzes the social, political and economic life of the country, in which he is concerned with historical narratives, in addition to social criticism.
“O Herói” was recorded at a time when Angolan cinema was reborn, with the appearance of three feature films, namely “Comboio da Canhoca”, by Orlando Fortunato, and “Na Cidade Vazia”, by Maria João Ganga.
The production of “O Herói” brought together Angola, France and Portugal, a film with Angolan, Senegalese and Brazilian actors, which won an award at Sundance, in the United States, in 2004.
“O Grande Kilapi”, a Luso-Angolan-Brazilian production, comedy drama, stars Lázaro Ramos, Pedro Hossi, João Lagarto, Patrícia Bull and São José Correia.
The story unfolds between the end of the 1960s and 1975, through the fictional testimony about Angola’s liberation struggle and decolonization through the character of Joãozinho, an apolitical anti-hero.
Under the motto “Dakhla is the gateway to Africa”, the festival ends on Thursday and is organized by the Association of Cultural and Artistic Animation of the Southern Provinces.
16 African countries are participating, namely Cameroon, Mauritius, Angola, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Uganda, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Comoros, Benin, Congo, Senegal, Somalia, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritania and Morocco, the host country.
director’s path
Zézé Gamboa is the artistic name of José Augusto Octávio Gamboa dos Passos, born in Luanda. Between 1974 and 1980 he was director of the news and information programs of the then Popular Television of Angola (TPA).
In 1984, he obtained a sound engineer diploma at Néciphone, under the direction of Antoine Bonfanti, in Paris, having participated as a sound engineer in more than thirty international cinematographic productions.
In 1989, he started as a documentary director: “Mopiopio, Sopro de Angola” (1991) and “Dissidência” (1998) achieved international recognition.
Documentaries and short films followed, “Burned by Blue”, (2001), “O Desassossego de Pessoa”, (2002), “Good Morning, Africa”, (2009), among others.
In 1992, during the peace process in Angola, he began to develop his first feature film, “O Heroi”, but the civil war resumed. After facing obstacles and difficulties, the film was shot in 2002.
The Hero won the Grand Jury Prize of the “World Dramatic Competition of the Sundance International Film Festival” in 2005, and became an international success, achieving many awards and being selected for the most prestigious international festivals and competitions.
In 2007, it was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, as a celebration of African cinema.
“O Grande Kilapy” was, in 2012, the second feature film to premiere commercially in Portugal, Angola and Brazil, in addition to being screened at many festivals and receiving numerous important awards.
Founding partner of Gambôa & Gambôa Produções, in addition to being a director, he was a producer of several films, “Mozambique da Guerra e da Paz”, by Sol de Carvalho, co-producer of “Le Sapeur”, by David Pierre Fila, 2017, “Sur la Route de la Rumba”, by David Pierre Fila, 2014, and “Bobô”, by Inês Oliveira, 2013.
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