AÏSSA MAÏGA

Actress, director and producer Aïssa Maïga made her acting debut in the 1997 lm, Saraka Bô. Since then, she’s portrayed a diverse range of roles, and every performance is executed with fearlessness, sincerity and con dence. However, in her years in the profession she had noticed a pattern of racist behavior in the French lm industry that she could not ignore.

She was one of the participants in the staged protest against racism in the French lm industry that took place at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The actress linked arms with 15 other Black French actresses as they walked across the red carpet to the steps of the iconic Palais des Festivals. Her big Disruptor moment came in an act of de ance on stage at the 2020 César awards. In front of the mostly white audience, Maïga spoke about the discriminatory treatment of actors of color, and how stereotypical roles for Black actors continue to dominate casting choices. “We survived whitewashing, blackface, tons of dealer roles, housekeepers with a Bwana accent; we survived the roles of terrorists, all the roles of hyper-sexualized girls, but we are not going to leave French cinema alone,” she said. The speech left the audience stunned into silence.

Did she make some folk angry? Yes. Did that stop her in any way? Maïga has kept her word, realizing that she must be the change, and now the actress creates the content she wants to see. With her featurelength documentary, Regard noir, Maïga gave a platform to Black actresses around the world to relay their stories of racism, sexism and colorism in the industry.