On a le Temps Pour Nous (Time is on Our Side)

synopsis

Burkina Faso, October 2014. What many had not dared to imagine happened. The people of Burkina Faso put an end to the reign of Blaise Compaoré. Rapper Smockey, a member of Balai Citoyen, is one of the architects of this change, of the victory of utopia over reality. Today, after the insurrection, the failed putsch and the organization of free elections, have the accounts of the deposed regime been settled and expectations fulfilled? Time is on Our Side takes us into Smockey’s day-to-day life, up close and personal with a rebellious, endearing character who traces a path between activism and artistic encounters; between concerns fed by a floating present and renewed hopes.

about the director

Katy Léna N’diaye, born in 1968, is a Senegalese-French documentary filmmaker, best known for her documentaries about women muralists in Africa. Born in Senegal, N’diaye grew up in Europe. She studied modern literature in Paris, and undertook further study in broadcast journalism. She has worked as a journalist for TV5 Monde and RTBF, and lives in Brussels, Belgium. N’diaye’s documentary Traces – characterized by Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times as “visually sharp and lovingly informal” – focussed on mural painting by Kassena women in Burkina Faso. In the documentary, three elderly women explain the content of the murals covering the reddish-clay huts to Anetina, a young unmarried woman. Awaiting for Men documented three older women talking as they painted the town wall in Oualata, an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara Desert in southeast Mauritania. Parallel to her career as a filmmaker, Katy Léna Ndiaye works for television as well. From 2000 to 2018, she presented and later directed Reflets Sud and Afrique Plurielle CIRTEF productions, broadcast on TV5 Monde and the Belgian RTBF. Since 2013, she has been running Indigo Mood Films, a production company based in Senegal.