African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent

by Gugler, Josef

• ISBN13: 9780852555620
• ISBN10: 0852555628
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: James Currey

Summary

A comprehensive analysis of fifteen films created by film-makers from Africa and its diaspora. These directors set out to re-image Africa - and offer Western viewers the opportunity to re-imagine the continent and its people. Two additional, very successful films on Africa, one from Hollywood, the other from apartheid South Africa, serve to highlight African directors' altogether different perspectives. The interpretation considers the financial and technical difficulties of African film production, the intended audiences, the constraints on distribution, and critical reception. The films featured here cover a wide range of topics, from new perspectives on Africa prior to the intrusion of the West, to the struggle against colonialism and white minority rule, to post-colonial issues of authoritarian rule, neo-colonialism, corruption, inequality and the condition of the peasantry, with the position of women a recurrent theme. The discussions are accompanied by reproductions of posters, of photos of the directors during the shooting, and film frames illustrating key elements in the analysis. Introductions to the thematic topics provide the historical, cultural, political, and economic context of the films. Four of the films are based on novels, two more ona play or an epic, and the transformation involved in bringing the written page, or the griot's recitation to the screen receives special attention. Throughout, the discussion extends to other African films and literary works.

Table of Contents

17 Films in 17 Sentences
Preface
Basic Indicators for African Countries
Political Map of Africa
Introduction: Africans Re-Image Africa	p. 1
Historical Map of Africa	p. 16
Recovering the African Past	p. 17
Out of Africa 1985	p. 23
Yaaba 1989	p. 29
Keital 1995	p. 36
Fighting Colonialism	p. 45
Sambizanga 1972	p. 51
Flame 1996	p. 57
The Struggle for Majority Rule in South Africa	p. 65
The Gods Must Be Crazy 1986	p. 71
A Dry White Season 1989	p. 89
Mapantsula 1988	p. 91
Fools 1997	p. 97
Betrayals of Independence	p. 107
Kongl's Harvest 1970	p. 113
Kala 1974	p. 126
Tableau Ferraille 1997	p. 139
The Blue Eyes of Yenta 1992	p. 147
The Exploited & Neglected Peasantry	p. 157
Finzan 1990	p. 160
Kasarmu Ce 1991	p. 168
Between the African Mass Market & International Recognition	p. 177
Kini and Adams 1997	p. 181
La Vie est belle 1987	p. 186
Epilogue: Re-Imagining Ourselves	p. 193
Sources & Credits	p. 194
Index	p. 196
The Author	p. 202
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