Focus on African FilmsFrançoise Pfaff Emphasizing post-independent films released since the 1950s and the burgeoning commercial film production of the last decade, Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking throughout Africa. As a whole, the collection highlights the distinct thematic, stylistic, and socioeconomic circumstances of African filmmaking. Individual essays show how conditions in Africa have generated a broad range of views and techniques, from the stylistically innovative documentaries of Jean-Marie Teno and Abderrahmane Sissako and the "documentary fiction" of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun to the vibrant art films of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and the new films from South Africa. Contributors also outline the direction of increasingly popular, less didactic sub-Saharan filmmaking in films such as Daniel Kamwa's Pousse-Pousse, Ngangura Mweze's La vie est belle, and Imungu Ivanga's Dôlé. Up-to-date and richly informative, Focus on African Films will be essential reading for students and scholars of African film. |
Contents
Introduction | 11 |
Come Back South Africa Cinematic Representations of Apartheid over Three Eras of Resistance | 15 |
Ousmane Sembene and History on the Screen A Look Back to the Future | 33 |
Film and History in Africa A Critical Survey of Current Trends and Tendencies | 48 |
Fiction Fact and the Critics Responsibility Camp de Thiaroye Yaaba and The Gods Must Be Crazy | 69 |
African Cities as Cinematic Texts | 89 |
Images of France in Francophone African Films 19781998 | 107 |
The Failed Trickster | 124 |
Booming Videoeconomy The Case of Nigeria | 173 |
Africa through a Womans Eyes Safi Fayes Cinema | 185 |
From Africa to the Americas Interviews with Haile Gerima 19762001 | 203 |
The Russian Connection Soviet Cinema and the Cinema of Francophone Africa | 223 |
African and Latin American Cinemas Contexts and Contacts | 241 |
Where to View Rent and Purchase African Feature Films Africa Europe the United States and Canada | 273 |
305 | |
Contributors | 307 |