8 famous people you did not know are from Burkina Faso

Gaston Kaboré

The Burkinabé film director is famed for his award-winning films Wend Kuuni and Buud Yam. Kaboré studied history at the Centre d’Etudes Superieures d’Histoire d’Ouagadougou before continuing his studies in Paris where he received an MA. There, he became interested in how Africa was portrayed abroad, which led him to study cinematography in 1974. He returned to his native country to be the director of the Centre National du Cinéma before making his first film, Je Reviens De Bokin (I Come From Bokin). He followed it up with documentaries such as ‘Stockez et conservez les grains’ (Store and Conserve the Grain) and ‘Regard sur le VI’eme FESPACO’ (A Look at the 6th FESPACO). His first feature, Wend Kuuni (1982) was a breakthrough for African cinema notable for the way it translated African oral tradition to the screen, according to IMDb. He released his second feature Zan Boko (1988) before participating in the film, Lumière and Company (1995) in which 40 directors from around the world were asked to make a short film with the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumiere Brothers. Kabore’s work has received numerous international awards, including a French César award. In 1997 he won the first prize at the 15th Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) with the film Buud Yam.