The Cemetery of Cinema is a eulogy to the 1953 film Mouramani directed by Mamadou Touré, supposedly the first film by a Black African director. Made clandestinely when French colonial rule still banned Africans from picking up a camera, the film has become notorious on home soil, yet no one recalls having seen it. Filmmaker Thierno Souleymanne Diallo sets out on a journey to find this elusive relic, and along the way uncovers cultures of film-making, archiving and exhibition today.

The potential for political commentary that so concerned the French colonial administration is expertly wielded by Diallo as he journeys from the abandoned movie theatres and defunct film laboratories of his native Guinea, to the hallowed archives and art house cinemas of France on a quest for this mythic celluloid. Bringing the two countries’ history of repressive approaches to African cinema to the fore, the film questions how film archiving decisions are determined and what a healthy global film culture should look like. Part performance piece, part road-movie, The Cemetery of Cinema revives a key memory of Sub-Saharan cinema, while acting as both an ode and testament to the filmic medium as a bridge between self depiction and self determination.

The film will be introduced by June Givanni, founder of June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archives, and 2024 recipient of BAFTA's Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award.