France
Brittany, 1928 -2015.
René Vautier, estudied at the “Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques”. Author of several works denouncing Colonialism, including: Afrique 50, Un homme est mort, Une nation, l'Algerie, L'Algerie en Flammes, Hirochirac,...
René Vautier appears to be the archetypal socially committed filmmaker: his militant films are held up by a flexible rigorousness and formal ingenuity that help him overcome the practical problems arising from his "social intervention" works. In his own words, his motto could be: "Write history in images, immediately". In 1950, disgusted by the French censors who confiscated many of his reels, he managed to finish Afrique 50, the first French anti-colonial film. His social commitment as a filmmaker leads to 13 charges against him, and a jail sentence. At the price of many years in jail and a hunger strike, René Vautier's struggle against all kind of oppression - political, economic and cultural – will endure.
« J'ai toujours considéré une caméra comme une arme de témoignage. Mais ce n'est pas une arme qui tue. Au contraire, ça peut être un instrument de paix. C'est pour cela que je me suis bagarré pendant cinquante ans pour qu'il y ait des dialogues d'images, et tous les films que j'ai faits, je considère que ce sont des dialogues d'images. Le réalisateur prend parti. Il s'engage d'un côté, mais il donne aussi la parole aux gens d'en face. » (René Vautier)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Vautier