YESTERDAY AT NYASSAN a film by Catherine Hébert
27m
Short Documentary, 27 minutes, Canada, 2016
Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal RIDM (Montréal 2016)
Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois (Montréal, 2017)
Doc Cévènnes (France 2017)
YESTERDAY AT NYASSAN, Sourou Valley, Burkina Faso. The night watchman awaits the dawn, marking the end of his night shift guarding the rice fields. At daybreak, the dryers light the fires, and the frothing cauldrons shroud the workers in billows of white steam. Shadows stretch over the road, toward the market, where tall heaps of rice wait for buyers. Ousseinata must find a customer if she is to have dinner tonight: a few handfuls of tô, eaten by moonlight.
Yesterday in Nyassan is a patient observation of the actions that make up a day structured by rice farming. A day passes, slowly. Although it lacks an overt political stance, the film does convey the difficulty of living from local farming at a time when the market is drowning in cheap imports. What does the future hold for the farmers? What will tomorrow bring?
WRITTEN & DIRECTED by Catherine Hébert
IMAGE Elric Robichon
EDITING Elric Robichon
SOUND DESIGN Mélanie Gauthier
MIX Bruno Bélanger
SOUND RECORDING David Cherniak
PRODUCED by Catherine Hébert et Elric Robichon (Mango Films)