Ouaga Girls
Fall Grants 2016 - Post-Production Stage
Theresa Traore Dahlberg / Feature Documentary / Burkina Faso, Sweden, Qatar / 2017 / 80 min / Original Language: French / Interests: Women, Coming of age, Social Issues, Youth, Identity, Creative Documentary
Synopsis
The sun shines over an open garage in Burkina Faso’s capital, where Bintou is lacquering a car door. She is attending a feminist-initiated education centre for women who have been ostracised by society. The centre aims to strengthen these women’s independence by teaching them a profession traditionally reserved for men – that of the car mechanic. Bintou isn’t sure this is the vocation for her, but she has a four-year-old daughter and the school is a way to secure income. In the shade outside, Chantalle waits her turn. A good student, she is proud of her future profession, but the disappearance of her mother triggers recurrent panic attacks and the school is now her only refuge. During their last year at school, Bintou and Chantalle and their friends become increasingly complex and mysterious, drawing us deeper into the large and small choices that will shape their lives.
Credits
- Director
- Theresa Traore Dahlberg
- Screenwriter
- Theresa Traore Dahlberg
- Producer
- David Herdies
- Production Company
- Momento Film
About the Director
Theresa Traore Dahlberg was born in 1983 and spent her childhood on the Swedish island of Öland and in Burkina Faso. She studied at the New School in New York and at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her ground-breaking graduation film, ‘Taxi Sister’ (2011), about a female taxi driver in Dakar, was screened at festivals worldwide. Dahlberg has been active in several film and art projects around the world and is constantly pushing the boundaries of art, sculpture and filmmaking. She is now studying for an MFA at the Royal Institute of Art in Sweden. ‘Ouaga Girls’ marks her feature-length filmmaking debut.
Awards and Festival History
Festivals
Visions du Reel 2017, Grand Angle
AwardsDragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary, Gothenburg International Film Festival 2017 (WP)