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- Director
- Cinematographer
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Around 1935, the parish priest André Cornil developed a strong interest in film. He filmed the day trips taken by his pupils at the Collège Saint-Pierre in the Brussels suburb of Uccle and just before the war established a non-profit-making distribution and production company called A7A or Apostolat par le Septième Art. In 1941, Cardinal van Roey seconded him to the production of educational films. After the war, the Colonial Minister asked him to direct similar films in the Belgian Congo for African audiences as part of the Centre d'Information et de Documentation CID. To prepare for his task to gather the necessary funding, Cornil contacted the major colonial companies and various religious orders, such as the White Fathers and the Order of the Immaculate Heart, who already produced films for the African population. In 1950 armed with equipment acquired in the USA, Cornil arrived in Matadi. Between 1950 and 1960 this Belgian priest, working for the Belgian Colonial Ministry, made around 100 films, primarly intended for the African audiences in the Belgian Congo. His last film Wadimbisa was never shown, due to the fact that the film was not completed until after June 1960, when the Congo gained its independence. It was to be André cornil's last work of fiction; the priest went on to cover the festivities held in honour of independence before abandoning his film camera and returning to belgium, where he died in 1993.