The Cinema of Niger began in the 1940s with the ethnographical documentary of French director Jean Rouch, before growing to become one of the most active national film cultures in Francophone Africa in the 1960s-70s with the work of filmmakers such as Oumarou Ganda, Moustapha Alassane and Gatta Abdourahamne.
[3][4] The industry has slowed somewhat since the 1980s, though films continue to be made in the country, with notable directors of recent decades including Mahamane Bakabe, Inoussa Ousseini, Mariama Hima, Moustapha Diop and Rahmatou Keïta.
[4] Arriving initially as an engineer in 1941, Rouch remained in Niger after independence, and mentored a generation of Nigerien filmmakers and actors, including Damouré Zika, Moustapha Alassane and Oumarou Ganda.
[3][6] Rouch made his first film in Niger in 1947, with the short documentary Au Pays des Mages Noirs (In the Land of Black Mages), going on to make a number of similar short ethnographic documentaries, such as Les Magiciens de Wanzarbé (1948), Initiation à la danse des possédés (Initiation to the Dance of the Possessed; 1949) and Chasse à l'hippopotame (Hippopotamus Chase; 1950).
[6] Other notable film-makers from the period include Inoussa Ousseini (Wasan Kara, 1980), Moustapha Diop (Le médecin de Gafire, 1986; Mamy Wata, 1990) and Mahamane Bakabe (Si les cavaliers, 1982).
[5][6] In the 1980s-90s Mariama Hima, the first female director from Niger, won acclaim for documentaries, such as Baabu Banza (1985), Katako (1987) and Hadiza et Kalia (1994); after a number of high-profile cultural roles she later became ambassador to France.
[5] The first Nigerien Tuareg feature film, Akounak Teggdalit Taha Tazoughai (Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It), was released in 2015 and stars the musician Mdou Moctar; it was directed by American musicologist Christopher Kirkley.