Boli Bana

The Fulani people are the oldest Islamic, nomadic herders in West Africa and have developed a rich tradition of figurative objects. The first part of Boli Bana follows the boys on their long journeys with the cattle on the savannah. They are responsible for the herd, joke as boys do, but act like men. The girls live in the colourful village of Boli Bana where they sing and laugh. They endure a ritual that prepares them to be adult women. 
Simon Coulibaly Gillard has been working in Burkina Faso for the past four years and uses a haptic filming method – hapto is from the Greek haptesthai that means to touch – which has various forms. The haptic cinema in Boli Bana is intended to align your sensory memory with what you see while you can develop your own story.