Directed by Paulin Soumanou Vieyra • 1961 • Senegal

In 1958, Paulin Vieyra set up a special office dedicated to cinema in Senegal, which, after the establishment of independence in 1960, became a base for the country’s film industry. A NATION IS BORN is a historical portrait of Vieyra’s homeland showing scenes from precolonial traditions—represented mainly by dance—to the exploitative era of European domination, to the new beginning represented by the celebration of the republic.