Past Film/Video | Visiting Filmmakers | Classics | Series & Festivals

Yam Daabo

(The Choice, Idrissa Ouédraogo, 1986)

Introduced by Aboubakar Sanogo, African Film Heritage Project

New Restoration

Info & Tickets

A side view of a Black woman wearing a brightly colored garment. She appears to be preparing to drink from her hands.

Feb 29, 2024 7:00 PM

Film/Video Theater

$7 members and adults 55 and over
$9 general public
$5 students

ACCESSIBILITY
We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. If you have questions about accessibility or require an accommodation such as CART captioning or ASL interpretation to participate in this event, please email accessibility@wexarts.org or call (614) 688-3890. Requests made by two weeks in advance will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the Wexner Center for the Arts will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

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Considered one of the most visually beautiful African films, Yam Daabo follows a family navigating bitter choices for survival and freedom.

Award-winning director Idrissa Ouédraogo was best known for his films that explored tensions between tradition and modernity in his native Burkina Faso. In his first feature Yam Daabo (The Choice), a young family from the Sahel region courageously decides to forgo international assistance from USAID and journey in search of a new home where they can be self-sufficient and live with dignity. Once settled, tensions rise as two suitors compete for the hand of the family’s daughter. In Mooré with English subtitles. (80 mins., 4K DCP)

See the complete 2024 Cinema Revival lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Yam Daabo, courtesy of the Film Foundation.

"A beautifully composed, emotionally triumphant film."

Caryn James, New York Times

About the speaker

Aboubakar Sanogo is the North American Regional Secretary for the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), Africa’s most important filmmakers organization. He is currently working on the African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), a partnership between FEPACI, Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, and UNESCO, which seeks to preserve and restore significant African films. He is an associate professor in film studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Tag(s)

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and L’Image Retrouvée laboratories, in collaboration with Les Films de la Plaine and the family of Idrissa Ouédraogo. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO―in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna―to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema.

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Ohio Department of Development 
Greater Columbus Arts Council 
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services 
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
Nancy Kramer
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
Larry and Donna James
Bruce and Joy Soll
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate