By Catherine Fellows
BBC, Ouagadougou

Fespaco 2005 is celebrating 50 years of African Cinema.

But how, I wondered when I heard this, do you date the beginning of African Cinema?

Well, it seems to have been agreed that the first truly African film – a film made by Africans about Africans – was Afrique sur Seine, shot 50
years ago by a group of students based in Paris, headed by Paulin
Soumanou Vieyra from Senegal.

To mark the occasion, Fespaco has published a revue of African Cinema
which will be made available during the course of the Festival and to
which many of the continent’s leading lights in the film industry have
contributed.

There will also be a special screening of Afrique sur Seine on Sunday,
the first full day of the Festival.