Cinema is Magic offers a rare insight into the filmmaking process of one of African cinema’s foremost directors Djibril Diop Mambéty. Interspersed with clips from his films, Mambety poetically discusses his deep love of cinema and philosophical approach to life and making art. Director Silvia Voser, had a long-standing working relationship with Mambéty having worked as a producer on Le Franc (1994). Her documentary captures the auteur’s hopeful outlook on cinema and its infinite possibilities.
Djibril Diop Mambéty (January 1945 – July 23, 1998) was a Senegalese film director, actor, orator, composer and poet. Though he made only two feature films and five short films, they received international acclaim for their original and experimental cinematic technique and non-linear, unconventional narrative style. Born to a Muslim family near Dakar, Senegal's capital city, Mambéty was Wolof. He died in 1998 while being treated for lung cancer in a Paris hospital.