Med Hondo
Med Hondo | |
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Born | Mohamed Abid Hondo 4 May 1936 |
Died | 2 March 2019 Paris, France | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and voice actor |
Years active | 1967–2013 |
Website | http://www.medhondo.com |
Med Hondo (born Mohamed Abid Hondo; 4 May 1936 – 2 March 2019) was a Mauritanian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and voice actor. He emigrated to France in 1959 and began to work in film during the 1960s. He received critical acclaim for his 1967 directorial début Soleil O.
Biography
Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the Atar region of Mauritania. His mother was Mauritanian and his father Senegalese.[1][2] In 1954 Hondo went to Rabat, Morocco, to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there.[1][3] He emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseille and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man.[1][2] He found that he and other African immigrants were unable to gain work in their chosen professions, and in the menial jobs they could find, they were paid less than the French.[3] The difficulty of making a living during this time, as well as the racism he experienced, eventually provided inspiration for his films, including Soleil O and Les 'bicots-Nègres' vos voisins.[4]
Hondo began to take classes in acting and directing, and studied under French actress Françoise Rosay, acting in classic plays by Shakespeare, Molière and Jean Racine.[1][3] He was unable to fully express himself with French repertoire theatre, and in 1966 formed his own theatre company with Guadeloupean actor Robert Liensol.[1][4] Named Shango (from Shango, the Yoruba god of thunder), and later Griot-Shango, the company produced plays relating the experiences of Black people, including works by René Depestre and Aimé Césaire.[1][3][5]
In the late 1960s, Hondo started taking small roles in television and films.[6] He began to learn the craft of film making by careful observation of the work of others, and began to get work behind the camera.[4][6] He began work on his first film, Soleil O, in 1965.[7] Made on a $30,000 budget, it was financed by Hondo's work dubbing American films into French.[8] Soleil O played during International Critics' Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim.[9] It received a Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival.[10] In 1981 he was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.[11]
Hondo also worked frequently as a voice actor. He worked on the dubbing of many English language films into French, voicing characters played on screen by Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Danny Glover (on the rare occasions when Glover was not dubbed by Richard Darbois).[1] He dubbed several of Eddie Murphy's films, including The Nutty Professor (1996) and the part of Donkey in 2001's Shrek and its sequels.[12][13]
Med Hondo explained on his website[14] that he met with Danny Glover in 1991 and presented his then-current project to him: a biopic of Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture. According to Hondo, an enthusiastic Glover voiced his interest in the lead role, and in taking part in the production side of the film, but then cut all communication with Hondo and co-writer Claude Veillot. Hondo claimed that Glover's own Louverture biopic project, financially backed by Hugo Chavez, was inspired by his original screenplay, and addressed an open letter to Glover in which he denied assertions from Glover's "Louverture Films" company that the script was a commission paid by Glover to Hondo. Hondo also mentioned his meeting with Glover in an English-language interview on French international news channel France 24.[15]
Hondo died in Paris on 2 March 2019, aged 82.[16]
Filmography
Director
- 1967: Soleil O
- 1974: Les 'bicots-Nègres' vos voisins (Arabs and Niggers, Your Neighbours)
- 1975: Sahel la faim pourquoi
- 1979: West Indies
- 1986: Sarraounia
- 1994: Lumière noire (Black Light)
- 1998: Watani, un monde sans mal
- 2004: Fatima, l'Algérienne de Dakar
Actor
- 1964: Les verts pâturages
- 1965: Bob Morane as Notomi (television series; two episodes)
- 1965: Belphégor as Gaillac (television series)
- 1965: Seule à Paris (television series)
- 1966: Retour à Bacoli as Un tirailleur (television series)
- 1967: Un homme de trop as Florent
- 1968: Tante Zita as James
- 1969: A Walk with Love and Death as Entertainer
- 1974: Aux frontières du possible as doctor Sosian Cisse (television series)
- 1975: Jo Gaillard as Carlos (television series)
- 1977: The Ambassadors as Med
- 1989–1991: Commissaire Moulin as Max (television series; three episodes)
- 1990: 1871 as Karl Marx
- 1997: La divine poursuite as the pilot
- 2000: Antilles sur Seine as Horace
- 2003: Funky Cops as Ace (television series; voice)
- 2006: Asterix and the Vikings as pirate lookout (voice)
- 2006: Incontrôlable as Rex (voice)
Dubbing
- 1982: Gandhi as Ben Kingsley's Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[1]
- 1984: Best Defense as Eddie Murphy's Lieutenant T.M. Landry[12]
- 1994: The Lion King as Rafiki
- 1995: Se7en as Morgan Freeman's Detective Lt. William Somerset[12]
- 1996: The Nutty Professor as Eddie Murphy's Sherman Klump[12]
- 2001: Samurai Jack as Aku
- 2001: Shrek as Eddie Murphy's Donkey[13]
- 2003: Xiaolin Showdown as Dojo
- 2004: Shrek 2 as Donkey
- 2007: Shrek the Third as Donkey
- 2010: Shrek Forever After as Donkey
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Biography, official site.
- ^ a b Sherzer (1996), p. 173.
- ^ a b c d Ukadike (2002), p. 57.
- ^ a b c Sherzer (1996), p. 174.
- ^ Murphy (2007), p. 71.
- ^ a b Ukadike (2002), p. 58.
- ^ Sherzer (1996), p. 175.
- ^ Reid (1986).
- ^ Harvard Film Archive.
- ^ Locarno International Film Festival official site.
- ^ "12th Moscow International Film Festival (1981)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d L'Humanité (1997).
- ^ a b Canadian Online Explorer (2002).
- ^ Med Hondo's open letter to Danny Glover Archived 23 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine (French and English).
- ^ "Med Hondo, filmmaker and actor - France 24". France 24. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
- ^ "Décès à Paris du cinéaste mauritanien Med Hondo". Cridem.org. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
References
Books
- Dedieu, Jean-Philippe (2012). La Parole Immigrée. Les Migrants Africains dans l'Espace Public en France (1960-1995). Klincksieck. pp. 149–187. ISBN 2-252-03828-4.
- Murphy, David; Patrick Williams (2007). Postcolonial African Cinema: Ten Directors. Manchester University Press. pp. 71–90. ISBN 0-7190-7203-4.
- Sherzer, Dina; Madeleine Cottenet-Hage (1996). Cinema, Colonialism, Postcolonialism: Perspectives from the French and Francophone World. University of Texas Press. pp. 173–187. ISBN 0-292-77703-5.
- Signaté, Ibrahim (1994). Med Hondo. Un Cinéaste Rebelle. Présence Africaine. ISBN 2-708-70584-9.
- Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank (2002). Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 57–72. ISBN 0-8166-4004-1.
Other references
- Reid, Mark; Blum, Sylvie (31 March 1986). "Med Hondo Interview: Working Abroad". Jump Cut. Retrieved 24 August 2009.
- "Shrek adapté par Sam Mendes" (in French). Canadian Online Explorer. 17 October 2002. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- "Directors in Focus — African Perspectives: Med Hondo". Harvard Film Archive. 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2009.
- "Eddie Murphy Change de Voix, Med Hondo Evincé". L'Humanité (in French). 9 April 1997. Archived from the original on 16 June 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- "Winners of the Golden Leopard". Locarno International Film Festival Official Site. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- "Biography". Med Hondo's Official Site. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2009.
External links
- Official website
- Med Hondo at IMDb
- Med Hondo at Behind The Voice Actors