Originally from Saint Louis, Senegal, Joseph Gaï Ramaka studied visual anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and film at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques in Paris, where he lived for many years. Ramaka’s short film “Ainsi soit-il” (“So Be It”) won the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1997. His first feature film, Karmen Geï (2001), an adaptation of the Georges Bizet opera “Carmen” set in contemporary Senegal, has been screened at Cannes, Sundance, and the Los Angeles Film Festival where it won the Best Feature Award. Ramaka’s documentary, “Et si Latif avait raison?” (“What if Latif Were Right?”), on the culture of autocracy under current Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, was awarded Best Documentary Film at the Festival Vues D’Afriques (Montreal) in 2006. Ramaka’s most recent films are ” Plan Jaxaay” about a chronically flooded neighborhood in a suburb of Dakar, and “It’s My Man!” a love story, set in Bloomington, Indiana.

This event is sponsored by Art History and Visual Culture, French/Modern Languages, International Studies, Queer Studies, and Vail.