In the French colonies Africans were prohibited by the 1934 Laval Decree from making films of their own. The ban stunted the growth of film as a means of African expression, political, cultural, and artistic. Congolese Albert Mongita did make "The Cinema Lesson" in 1951 and in 1953 Mamadou Touré made "Mouramani" based on a folk story about a man and his dog. In 1955, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra originally from Benin, but educated in Senegal along with his colleagues from Le Group Africain du Cinema, shot a short film in Paris, "Afrique-sur-Seine" (1955). Vieyra was trained in filmmaking at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) in Paris, and despite the ban on filmmaking in Africa, was granted permission to make a film in France. Considered the first film directed by a black African, "Afrique Sur Seine" explores the difficulties of being an African in 1950s France.