African cinemas
Subtitle: decolonizing the gaze
By: Olivier Barlet ; translated by Chris Turner.
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2000
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
Subjects: Motion pictures -- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- History
Description: "Focusing on the attempt to decolonize the imagination, this book is both a personal journey and an introduction to the cinema cultures of Africa. A book about the politics of cultural survival, it is also a major overview of African cinema and television." "The first part traces the development of African cinema - from colonization to Afrocentrism. The second part of the book analyses specific films, particularly through narrative and in terms of their African specificity in the use of silence, orality and humour. Finally, the author explores the social and economic contexts of the African cinema and television industry - including its often vexed relations with the West and the problems of production and distribution African film-makers face."

"Exploring the achievements and challenges of those who seek to affirm African cultural values through film, the book also covers the African television industry and African-American cinema. It includes interviews with film-makers, stills from the films and, ultimately, a plea for seeing and respecting the otherness of the Other. The French National Film Centre's best film book of 1997 and now available in four languages, this is a book which takes us into a process of learning how to look."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-298) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:  PREFACE viii PART I THE ORIGIN, AKIN TO A PASSAGE; title: 1 HUMAN BEINGS, NOT ANTS! 3; title: Black is black  Colonialprojections  The ethnographic gate: involvement or; title: contempt?  African responses  Being on the same wavelength  The politics; title: of everyday life Foundingfigures  Class struggle without placards  The; title: novelistic path Africa first  English-speaking Africa: educational cinema; title: and the Hollywood dream  French guardian angels  Revolutionary; title: filmmakers?; title: 2 DECOLONIZING THOUGHT 34; title: Africa betrayed Unspoilt Africa  Pointing the finger  The mirror-space; title: The primacy of the collective The freedom to say no  The duty to show?; title: 3 'PROVERBS WERE FLESH AND BLOOD': THE REFERENCE TO THE PAST 47; title: Necessary memoty  Black pharaohs  The struggle with oneself African; title: recalcitrance  History as nostalgia  Legend, afalse trail?  'Shelling'; title: history The African cry; title: 4 CLOSING YOUR EYES 72; title: The refusal to mimic the West  Optingfor openness  Torn asunder; title: by modernity 5 OPENING UP T.HE CRACKS IN IDENTITY 82; title: A unified world  Symbols in motion * Reading with the heart * Passing on; title: knowledge * Blocked transmission * Drawing strength from the source * An; title: alternative development * The origin in doubt * Infidelities * The Marabouts'; title: projective mechanism * From nudiy to modesty; title: 6 AN OPENNESS OF APPROACH 109; title: South African introspection * Afro-American rites of passage ' Hybridized; title: identity French assimilationism * Farewell to negritude * The anxiety of; title: integration * A cinema of revelation; title: PART II AT THE WELLSPRINGS OF NARRATION; title: 7 BLACK HUMOURS 129; title: A politicaly committedpastiche Laughing at oneself  Derision as a; title: strategy * A vital laughter * A cathartic parody; title: 8 'MEN DIE, BUT WORDS REMAIN': AT THE ORIGIN OF NARRATION, ORALITY 143; title: First, silence The path of simple self-evidence The primacy of orality; title: Contrapuntal symbols  Cultural specifcities of the image Griots of a; title: new kind  The voice-off. the consciousness of the filmmaker Theatre is a; title: mere waystation * Letting them tell you stories  What slowness?; title: Space-time A cyclical composition * Rather than heroes, the art of; title: the paradox * The topicality of myth; title: 9 'IF YOUR SONG IS NO MPROVEMENT ON SILENCE, KEEP QUIET!' 183; title: Dances of resistance * Talkingdrums The song of thepeople; title: African sound; title: 10 SPEAKING YOUR OWN LANGUAGE 195; title: The expression of lived experience * A revisited French; title: Failing to reach your audience?  Prioriy to the emotions * Opening up; title: to multiculturalism * Is dubbing the answer? * Save the actor!; title: 11 TOWARDS A CRITICISM BASED ON THE NEED TO EXIST 210; title: The Western diktat  Towards a subjective criticism * The dead; title: weight of criticism African criticism; title: PART III BLACK PROSPECTS? 12 'HE WHO WANTS HONEY HAS THE COURAGE TO CONFRONT THE BEES': THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING FILMS 221; title: The trials and tribulations of filming * The dream of financial autonomy; title: The trials and tribulations offunding The trials and tribulations of; title: production; title: 13 THE AFRICAN AUDIENCE IS ANYTHING BUT HOMOGENEOUS 232; title: The agonies of distribution Dilapidated auditoriums  The video monster; title: Accompanying one's film A pluralistic audience ' A school of life; title: 14 A FICKLE AUDIENCE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE 251; title: Aiming true ' A limited audience  Promotion through festivals; title: 15 'WHEN YOU'VE GOT MEAT TO COOK, YOU GO AND FIND SOMEONE WITH FIRE': THE LOGICS OF WESTERN AID 260; title: The heart and the head  Giving and after  The internationalization; title: option  ConsolidatingprofessionaliZation  Wrestling with the blank; title: page  The 'Ecrans du Sud' experience  A key ministry Surviving; title: Planet Atria; title: 16 TELEVISUAL STRATEGIES 278; title: Africa can make it!  Getting beyond the passive 'waiting game'; title: Taking television by storm; title: CONCLUSION 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 29 1 APPENDIX: WHERE TO SEE BLACK AFRICAN FILMS 299; title: INDEX 306.