The French director of Senegalese origin, Ladj ly, has launched a new free school “Kourtrajmé” in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.After the school of Clichy-Montfermeil and Marseille, the director chose Senegal for the opening of the first school of the collective on the African continent. Ladj Ly is the father of the film ‘Les Misérables’ released in 2019 on police violence, a first feature film of fiction.The film was presented at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the “Jury Prize”.The film won four Césars in 2020, including the “Best Film” award and an Oscar nomination for “Best International Film”.
In 2018, a free film school “Kourtrajmé” was created at the initiative of director Ladji Ly in Clichy-Montfermeil and Marseille, today it is around Dakar. Dakar is one of the African capitals where film production is booming. It is also a lively and cosmopolitan city. It is thus in this city that the Franco-Senegalese decided to settle. The aim is to train Senegalese film and audiovisual enthusiasts to become professionals.
As a reminder, “Kourtrajmé” du verlan de «court métrage” is a French association and collective of artists working in the field of audiovisual, created in 1994 in the Paris region, the French capital, by Kim Chapiron, Toumani Sangaré Romain Gravas and Ladji Ly around the short film Paradoxe perdu. Today, “Kourtrajmé” has 135 active members in several fields. Ladj Ly’s collective “Kourtrajmé” has become a breeding ground for film-savvy talent, with great personalities such as Mouloud Achour and Vincent Cassel.
‘It is important to make accessible to all a place that allows the transmission and learning of film professions. Africa is full of talent, Dakar is our first school in Africa, we want to open up as many as possible to build bridges between them, train, develop and produce films,’ said Ladj Ly, quoted in a statement.
The call for applications for aspiring screenwriters and directors has been launched since December 15, 2020 on the website of the Dakaroise school which is directed by the Franco-Malian director Toumani Sangaré: 15 places in script writing and 25 places in directing-post-production in order to produce.
