Rasmané Ouedraogo’s Biography

A filmmaker and dedicated actor, Rasmané Ouedraogo was elected to a four-year term as President of the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity at the Federation’s founding convention held in Seville, Spain, in September 2007.

Born in 1953 in Damdola, Burkina Faso, Rasmané Ouedraogo received his training in audiovisual sciences and techniques at the Institut Africain d’Éducation Cinématographique in Ouagadougou and the École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques in Paris. He launched his career as a producer in 1981 with his first documentary, La pêche. But it is as an actor that Rasmané Ouedraogo has made his greatest mark on Burkinese film, playing in more than 100 film productions to date, among them Le choix (1988); Tilai (which won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1990) and La colère des dieux (2003) by Idrissa Ouedraogo; La promesse by the Dardenne brothers (1996); Apolline Traoré’s Sous la clarté de la lune (2004) and, most recently, French filmmaker Laurent Salgues’ Rêves de poussière (2006), to name but a few.

Deeply committed to the development and promotion of Burkinese film, he has been active in such organizations as the Centre National du Cinéma (1981-1985), the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes (1985-1993) and the Direction de la Cinématographie Nationale (1996-2001). He was Secretary-General of the Syndicat National Autonome des Comédiens du Burkina (2001) and, since 2003, has served as Chairman of the Board of FEPASCO (the Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou).

Rasmané Ouedraogo has been actively involved in the coalition for cultural diversity movement, spearheading the foundation of the Burkinese coalition, of which he is president, and promoting the establishment of coalitions in other African countries. A long-time ally and collaborator of Robert Pilon on the former International Liaison Committee (ILC), he was the natural choice for nomination to the presidency of the new International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity, a position to which he was unanimously elected by the Board of Directors.

Rasmané Ouedraogo is married and the father of two children.