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African cinema

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For the African-American cinema genre, see blaxploitation.
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African cinema

The term African cinema usually refers to the film production in countries south of the Sahara since they gained formal independence, which for many countries happened in the 1960s. Some of the countries which belong geographically to Africa (Egypt, for example) had developed a national film industry much earlier. Often, African Cinema also includes African directors living in the diaspora.

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[edit] Film during the colonial era

Africa was and still is the continent of projections. As with many African writers, for example Chinua Achebe, repudiating stereotypes and images about Africa and Africans was an important motivation for many African film makers. In Hollywood movies shot in the colonial era, Africa is used mainly to provide scenic landscapes, a with Africans often depicted as 'primitives' who inevitably are dangerous and wild, or servants satisfied with their lot.

In the French colonies, film making was formally forbidden to Africans. The first francophone African film, L’Afrique sur Seine by Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, was therefore shot in Paris in 1955.

Before independence only a few anti-colonial films like Les statues meurent aussi by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais about European robbery of African art, which was banned by the French for 10 years, or Afrique 50 by René Vauthier about anti-colonial riots in Cote D'Ivoire and in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) could be produced.

Many of the ethnographic films produced in the colonial era by Jean Rouch and others were rejected by African film makers because in their view they distorted African realities.

[edit] Production and Reception

African film makers often have difficulty accessing African audiences. The commercial cinemas often have to book blindly and show primarily Hollywood or Bollywood films. Where African audiences do have access to African films, e.g. at the Panafrican film festival in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), they often show a lively interest in the films. Most African film makers still rely heavily on European institutions for financing and producing their films. A commercially viable video production has been set up in Nigeria.

[edit] Mission

The political approach of African film makers is clearly evident in the Charte du cinéaste africain (Charta of the African cinéaste) which the union of African film makers FEPACI adopted in Algiers in 1975.

The film makers start by recalling the neocolonial condition of African societies. "The situation contemporary African societies live in is one in which they are dominated on several levels: politically, economically and culturally." In this situation African filmmakers saw it as their social responsibility to further the growth of consciousness of African people. They stressed their solidarity with progressive filmakers in other parts of the world. African cinema is often seen a part of Third Cinema.

In the words of Souleymane Cissé: "African filmmakers' first task is to show that people here are human beings and to help people discover the African values that can be of service to others. The following generation will branch out into other aspects of film. Our duty is to make people understand that white people have lied through their images." (Thackway, p. 39)

Some African filmmakers, e.g. Ousmane Sembène, try to give back African history to African people by remembering the resistance to European and Islamic domination.

The role of the African film maker is often compared to traditional Griots. Like them their task is to express and reflect communal experiences. Patterns of African oral literature often recur in African films. African film has also been influenced by traditions from other continents such as Italian neorealism, Brazilian Cinema Novo and the theatre of Bertolt Brecht.

[edit] Women Directors

Ethnologist and filmmaker Safi Faye was the first African women film director to gain international recognition.

In 1972, Sarah Maldoror had shot her film Sambizanga about the liberation struggle in Angola. Surviving women of this war are the subject of the Documentary Les oubliées (The forgotten), made by Anne-Laure Folly twenty years later.

[edit] 1960s and 70s

The first African film to win international recognition was Ousmane Sembène's La Noire de.. also known as Black Girl. It showed the despair of an African woman who has to work as a maid in France. The writer Sembène had turned to cinema to reach a wider audience. He is still considered to be the 'father' of African Cinema. Sembène's native country Senegal continued to be the most important place of African film production for more than a decade.

By creating the all African film festival FESPACO in Burkina Faso in 1969, African film had created its own forum. It now takes place every two years in alternation with the film festival Carthago in (Tunisia).

The Federation of African Filmmakers FEPACI was formed in 1969 in order to focus attention on the promotion of African film industries in terms of production, distribution and exhibition. From its inception, FEPACI was seen as a critical partner organization to the OAU, now the AU. FEPACI looks at the role of film in the politico-economic and cultural development of African states and the continent as a whole.

Med Hondo's O soleil O, shot in 1969, was immediately recognized. Politically not less engaged then Sembène, he chose a more controversial filmic language to show what it means to be a stranger in France with the 'wrong' skin colour.

Djibril Diop Mambéty's sophisticated comedy Touki Bouki (1973), about a young couple in Dakar who want to make a trip to Paris at all costs, is still considered one of the best African films ever made.

[edit] 1980s and beyond

Souleyman Cissé's Yeleen (Mali 1987) and Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Guimb (Mali 1995) were well received in the west. Some critics criticized the filmmakers for adapting to the exotistic tastes of western audiences

Many films of the 1990s, e.g. Quartier Mozart by Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon 1992) are situated in the globalized African metropolis.

A first African Film Summit took place in South Africa in 2006. It was followed by FEPACI 9th Congress.

[edit] Topics often depicted in African Cinema

  • Memory and History
  • Experiences of exile and emigration
  • The dominating class
  • Is there an African bourgeoisie?
  • The lives of Women and/or children
  • The city and the countryside

[edit] Directors by country

[edit] Films about African Cinema

  • Caméra d’Afrique, Director: Férid Boughedir, Tunesia/France 1983
  • Les Fespakistes, Directors: François Kotlarski, Eric Münch, Burkina Faso/France 2001

[edit] Bibliography

  • Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema" in: Bill Nichols (ed.), Movies and Methods. An Anthology, University of California Press 1976, pp. 44-64
  • Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Black African Cinema, University of California Press 1994
  • Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers, University of Minnesota Press 2002, ISBN 0-8166-4005-X
  • Melissa Thackway, Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film, Indiana University Press 2003, Includes a comprehensive bibliography and a select filmografy
  • Africultures
  • Samuel Lelievre (ed),Cinémas africains, une oasis dans le désert ?, CinémAction N° 106, Paris, 1st trimester 2003
  • Écrans d’Afriques (1992-1998) - French and English

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

fr:Cinéma africain ru:Кинематограф Африки

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