Aboubakar Sanogo is an Associate Professor in Film Studies at Carleton University. He is cross appointed with the Institute of African Studies (IAS), the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture (ICSLAC) and the Curatorial Studies Program. His research interests include African cinema, Afro-diasporic cinema, documentary film and media, transnational and world cinema, film archiving and film heritage, colonial cinema, postcolonialism, race and cinema and the relationship between film form, history and theory.

His writings have appeared in Cinema Journal, Framework, Moving Image Review & Art Journal, Rethinking History, Journal of Film Preservation, Film Quarterly, Sight and Sound and Film Comment. He is currently completing two manuscripts on the history of documentary in Africa and on the cinema of Med Hondo and an anthology on the legendary director.

Sanogo has also curated film programs at the Smithsonian Institution, The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Il Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival in Bologna and the Pan African Film Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). He is the founder of the annual African Film Festival of Ottawa (AFFO), presented in partnership with the Canadian Film Institute (CFI).

As the North American Regional Secretary for the Pan African federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), he initiated and oversees the FEPACI Archival Project. In that capacity he was instrumental in establishing and is heading on its behalf, the African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), a major film preservation and restoration initiative in partnership with Martin’s Scorsese’s Film Foundation and UNESCO.