"...As a child, I was shy and introverted, the world of images interested me much more than talking. I always saw the world in pictures"
Dieudonné Mweze Ngangura is a Brussels filmmaker of Congolese origin. He was born in 1950 in Bukavu (Eastern Congo-Kinshasa). After completing his secondary school studies, he flew to Europe at the age of 20, bound for Brussels. He has just obtained a scholarship from the Belgian cooperation. He chose the Institute of Broadcasting Arts to learn film directing and graduated in 1975. Back in Kinshasa in 1976, he gives courses for adults on visual arts and in 1980 he directed a 26-minute documentary on the Congolese painter Chéri Samba. Kin-Kiesse" followed in 1983; a bittersweet portrait of Kinshasa in the 80s. A Franco-Zairian co-production that won awards at the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) the same year. Back in Brussels, he co-produced under his label Sol'oeil-Films his film "La Vie est Belle" which he had already started writing in 1985. This feature-length film co-directed with the Belgian filmmaker Benoît Lamy has the Congolese musician Papa Wemba as the main actor. This film will meet a real success in French-speaking Africa.
In 1998, it was consecrated with the film "Pièces d'identités", a 90-minute fiction film shot partly in Brussels and partly in Cameroon. The film had its world premiere at the eighth edition of the Milan African Film Festival (March 1988) and won the Audience Award. "Pièces d'identités" will also win the Yennenga Stallion and the prize for best female performance at FESPACO. You will find below a list of the films in free access that I invite you to discover and an interview with Cinematek to learn more about this exceptional director. Good cinema to all!
film complet-Kin Kiesse, 1983 (26')
Documentary on Kinshasa in the 80's
Film complet-La vie est belle, 1985 (1h17')
Kourou (Papa Wemba) is a young musician who dreams of a career in the big city of Kinshasa. On the way to the capital, his eyes are lost in the eyes of the beautiful Kabibi...
Film complet-Pieces d'identités, 1998 (1h32')
The old Congolese king Mani Kongo goes to Brussels to look for his lost daughter...
Cinematek, 1999: A la découverte de D. Mweze Ngangura (1h13')