Title: African cinema : politics and culture /
Authors: Diawara, Manthia, 1953-
Publisher: Indiana University Press,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Motion pictures Africa History.; Motion pictures Social aspects Africa.; Motion pictures Political aspects Africa.; Culture in motion pictures.
Abstract: Manthia Diawara provides an insider's account of the history and current status of African cinema. African Cinema: Politics and Culture is the first extended study in English of Sub-Saharan cinema. Employing an interdisciplinary approach which draws on history, political science, economics, and cultural studies, Diawara discusses such issues as film production and distribution, and film aesthetics from the colonial period to the present. The book traces the growth of African cinema through the efforts of pioneer filmmakers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Oumarou Ganda, Jean-René Débrix, Jean Rouch, and Ousmane Sembène, the Pan-African Filmmakers' Organization (FEPACI), and the Ougadougou Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO). Diwara focuses on the production and distribution histories of key films such as Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl and Mandabi (1968) and Souleymane Cissé's Fine (1982). He also examines the role of missionary films in Africa, Débrix's ideas concerning 'magic, ' the links between Yoruba theater and Nigerian cinema, and the parallels between Hindu mythologicals in India and the Yoruba-theater - inflected films in Nigeria. Diawara also looks at film and nationalism, film and popular culture, and the importance of FESPACO. African Cinema: Politics and Culture makes a major contribution to the expanding discussion of Eurocentrism, the canon, and multi-culturalism.
Contents: Anglophone African Production -- Zairian production -- France's Contribution to the Development of Film Production in Africa -- The Artist as the Leader of the Revolution: The History of the Federation Panafricaine des Cineastes -- The Situation of National and International Film Production in Francophone Africa -- Film Production in Lusophone Africa: Toward the Kuxa Kenema in Mozambique -- Film Distribution and Exhibition in Francophone Africa -- The Present Situation of the Film Industry in Anglophone Africa -- African Cinema and Festivals: FESPACO -- African Cinema Today.