About

Known credits:
70
Birthday:
1929-07-19
Place of birth:
Condom, France
Website:
Click here

Sarah Maldoror

Overview

Sarah Maldoror (in Arabic: سارة مالدورور), whose real name was Marguerite Sarah Ducados, was a French filmmaker and director, born on July 19, 1929 in Condom (Gers) and died on April 13, 2020 in Fontenay-lès-Briis (Essonne). Her cinema is poetic but also political and committed. She is considered a leading figure in African cinema and the first female director on the continent.

Born to a Guadeloupean father from Marie-Galante and a mother from Gers, she chose the artist name "Maldoror" in homage to the poet Lautréamont. In 1958, she created the first black troupe in Paris, "Les Griots", alongside Toto Bissainthe, Timoti Bassori and Samb Abambacar. One of their goals is to share and make known the texts of black authors, and to offer major roles to actors of African origin. Sarah Maldoror left for two years in Moscow to study cinema at VGIK under the guidance of Mark Donskoï. There she met the Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène.

Companion of Mário Pinto de Andrade, Angolan poet and politician, she participated with him in the African liberation struggles. They gave birth to two daughters, Annouchka de Andrade and Henda Ducados. She returned to France in Saint-Denis. Mario de Andrade is the founder and first president of the MPLA (Movement for the Liberation of Angola). While he was secretary to Alioune Diop, founder of Présence africaine, he organized the first congress of black writers and artists in Paris (Sorbonne, 1958) and became a close friend of the poets Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Frantz Fanon and Richard Wright.

It was in Algiers, where she moved in 1966, that she made her debut on the cinematographic front of the anti-colonial struggles: assistant on Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers (1966) and William Klein's Pan-African Festival of Algiers 1969, a documentary, she soon made her first film, followed by a lost film shot in Guinea-Bissau and a first "fiction" feature film, Sambizanga (1972). Filmed in the Republic of Congo, based on an Angolan novel by José Luandino Vieira, adapted by his partner Pinto de Andrade with the French writer Maurice Pons, Sambizanga takes place in 1961 and describes the repression of the Angolan Liberation Movement from the point of view of Maria, the wife of a revolutionary activist imprisoned and tortured by the Portuguese army, who sets out to look for him across the country.

Sarah Maldoror will direct more than forty short or feature-length films, fiction films or documentaries. Her gaze has focused in particular on the poets Aimé Césaire (five films), René Depestre or Louis Aragon, as well as the painters Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Joan Miró or Vlady.

She died in April 2020 from Covid-19. In November 2021, "Sarah Maldoror, Cinéma Tricontinental" proposed by the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, is a retrospective of her work, her life and her political commitment. The exhibition continues at the Musée de l'Homme, the Musée de l'Histoire de l'immigration and the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Paul Éluard in Saint-Denis.

Known for

Acting
2011 Foreword to Guns for Banta Actor N/A
N/A
2010 Afrique[s], une autre histoire du XXème siècle - Acte 1 Actor self N/A
N/A
2010 Afrique(s), une autre histoire du XXème siècle Actor Self N/A
N/A
2005 Voisins, voisines Actor Mme Patisson 58
Average
2002 Sisters of the Screen - African Women in the Cinema Actor Self N/A
N/A
1999 Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l'utopie Actor Self N/A
N/A
1976 Mosaïque Actor Self 58
Average
1976 Aimé Césaire, Un homme une terre Actor Self 59
Average
1976 And the Dogs Were Silent Actor 59
Average

Directing
2009 Papa Césaire Directing Director 58
Average
2009 Ana Mercedes Hoyos Directing Director N/A
N/A
2005 Scala Milan AC Directing Director N/A
N/A
2005 Les oiseaux mains Directing Director N/A
N/A
2003 Memory's Gaze Directing Director N/A
N/A
1998 Tribu du bois de l'E Directing Director N/A
N/A
1996 L'Enfant cinéma Directing Director N/A
N/A
1995 Léon G. Damas Directing Director 59
Average
1989 Vlady Directing Director N/A
N/A
1987 Robert Doisneau, photographe Directing Director N/A
N/A
1987 Le Passager du Tassili Directing Director N/A
N/A
1987 Rencontre avec Assia Djebar Directing Director N/A
N/A
1987 Aimé Césaire: The Mask of Words Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 First International Conference for Black Women Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 A Senegalese Man in Normandy Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Tunisian Literature at the French National Library Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Point Virgule Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Point Virgule, Youth Journal Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Emanuel Ungaro Directing Director N/A
N/A
1986 Alberto Carlisky Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Portrait of Christiane Diop Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Portrait of an African Woman Directing Director N/A
N/A
1985 Public Writer Directing Director N/A
N/A
1984 Claudel in Reims Directing Director N/A
N/A
1984 Toto Bissainthe Directing Director N/A
N/A
1984 Robert Lapoujade, peintre Directing Director N/A
N/A
1983 The Hospital of Leningrad Directing Director N/A
N/A
1982 René Depestre, poète haïtien Directing Director N/A
N/A
1981 Dessert for Constance Directing Director 59
Average
1980 Wielopole, Wielopole as Staged by Kantor Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Carnival in Bissau Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Opening of the Theater Noir in Paris Directing Director N/A
N/A
1980 Wifredo Lam Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Miró, The Painter Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Carnival in the Sahel Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Foreign-Inspired Architecture in Paris Directing Director N/A
N/A
1979 Fogo, Fire Island Directing Director N/A
N/A
1978 Père Lachaise Cemetery Directing Director N/A
N/A
1978 Louis Aragon, a mask in Paris Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 Aimé Césaire at the End of Daybreak Directing Director N/A
N/A
1977 The Basilica of Saint-Denis Directing Director N/A
N/A
1976 Aimé Césaire, Un homme une terre Directing Director 59
Average
1976 And the Dogs Were Silent Directing Director 59
Average
1973 Sambizanga Directing Director 59
Average
1972 Saint-Denis-sur-Avenir Directing Director N/A
N/A
1970 Guns for Banta Directing Director N/A
N/A
1969 The Panafrican Festival in Algiers Directing Assistant Director 59
Average
1968 Monangambeee Directing Director 59
Average
1966 The Battle of Algiers Directing Assistant Director 71
Good
1966 The Women Directing Assistant Director 59
Average

Writing
2009 Papa Césaire Writing Writer 58
Average
1996 L'Enfant cinéma Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1983 The Hospital of Leningrad Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1980 Wifredo Lam Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1978 Père Lachaise Cemetery Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1977 The Basilica of Saint-Denis Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1976 Aimé Césaire, Un homme une terre Writing Writer 59
Average
1972 Saint-Denis-sur-Avenir Writing Writer N/A
N/A
1968 Monangambeee Writing Writer 59
Average

Crew
1973 Sambizanga Crew Script 59
Average
1966 The Battle of Algiers Crew Creative Consultant 71
Good