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THE STATE OF SUDAN’S FILM & CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Action Objectives:

(1)To increase understanding of the history of Sudanese film and obstacles faced by filmmakers; support for freedom of association among filmmakers and Sudanese artists broadly

(2)To gauge interest in a film festival or educational programming package of five films by the father and daughter team, Gadalla and Sara Gubara – Tajouj (GG, 1977), Khartoum (GG, 1975), Khartoum (SG, 2001), The One Who Adores Light (SG), Les Miserables (GG&SG, 2005)

(3)To mobilize ideas and financial/institutional support for the preservation of approximately 300 documentaries made in Sudan by Gadalla Gubara on 35mm

Narrative:

I recently went to the French Cultural Centre here in Khartoum to watch a film by Gadalla Gubara entitled ‘Barakat el Cheikh’ (1998). After the film I stuck around to meet the filmmaker who is now in his nineties and blind. He was very happy to talk and his daughter, Sara, joined in the conversation. They invited me to come and visit their studio. Before leaving, I was also introduced to Mustafa Ibrahim Mohamad, the film’s producer.

Two weeks later, I visited Sara Gubara at her home where she and her husband – a psychiatrist named Bella – told the history of Sudanese cinema. They recounted how the British colonial film unit started a tradition of film caravans – outdoor screenings around the country – in which her father’s documentary on the Al Jazeera agricultural project was featured alongside propaganda and entertainment components. Bella (an animator by hobby) and Sara (who lives with polio) explained that there are only eight feature films ever made in the Sudan, including three by the Gubara family.

Sara’s father, Gadalla, began his career as an encryption specialist in the Sudanese military. He founded the film department in the Sudanese Ministry of Information before he decided to launch his own studio, the only private film studio ever to exist in Sudan. Working also as a freelance journalist, he made over 300 documentaries in these various roles. One documentary was entitled ‘Viva Sara’ and highlighted the story of his daughter overcoming polio stereotypes to become an internationally competitive long distance swimmer.

In 1998, the Sudanese government issued a decree of eminent domain that allowed it to take the land that Gadalla’s film studio occupied. According to Sara, the day this information was relayed to Gadalla was the day that he fell blind. For a period of time, the military used his studio as a dormitory. His equipment and film reels were haphazardly stacked in corners, all stored improperly and some destroyed. To this day, Sara is fighting for the family’s right to the land taken by the government; she also recently challenged the government when it decided that the women’s swimming team would not be allowed to travel to Oman for a competition. In the end a portion of the land and studio was returned to the family, and the women’s team was sent to Oman for the competition. Sara is a fighter. She and Bella told me that Gadalla has lived by himself since his wife died; his house is on the other side of Khartoum and he only visits the studio occasionally. The last time he was there, he asked that they clean up the place. Sara has taken it upon herself to attract a university or other institution to her father’s body of work – 300 documentaries – that comprise Sudan’s visual history.

I was asking Sara whether it would be possible to submit her father’s film ‘Barakat el Cheikh’ to festivals as a part of a retrospective. She explained that due to the production role of Mustafa Ibrahim Mohamad, her father no longer has control of the film. Mohamad is a relative of Sudan’s President Bashir, and while he is not even a filmmaker has been allowed to overtake the public face of Sudan’s film industry including the facilities reserved for a film association. Currently, the father and daughter team of Gadalla and Sara Gubara is putting final touches on a Sudanese version of Les Miserables for which French cooperation helped them purchase the film stock and the Iranian embassy has promised post production assistance. Gadalla fell into deep depression after the government took away the studio he had spent his life building. His daughter and son-in-law convinced him to continue using his experience to make powerful films and to express his voice on issues important to Sudan.