African cinema has evolved in multiple facets since postcolonialism milieu. Post-nationalist African cinema has transformed into a more complex network that simultaneously incorporates both global and national issues alike. Modern post-nationalist films aim to aim to repudiate a homogenized notion African Cinema while highlight the diversities in African cinema, unlike antithetical early nationalist variants which portrayed a generalized African identity. These post-nationalist film makers advocate the need for utilizing new film languages and ideals suitable to the contemporary cultural, social, political and economic situations of different African countries. Certain developments have been instrumental to this gradual cinematic evolution …show more content…
Hitherto, filmmakers considered African cinema to be a purely instructional form of art and thus repudiated the idea of African films as entertaining. Early african filmmakers used films for the sole purpose of pursuing political persuasions and instigating national reformation. As such, entertainment was likened to Western Cinema which was deemed an ‘escapist cinema’ as it neglected real-life complexities and thus, decelerated the perception process. (Tcheyuap pp 9). They believed that the superficiality of entertainment films digressed from the ‘mission’ of African filmmaking as an instrument of transformation. However, modern filmmakers are embracing these new genres, techniques and stylistic devices to achieve their own transformational goals. Cameroonian filmmaker, Jean Pierre Bekolo uses an extraordinarily imaginative narrative and exaggerated visual and verbal comedy to create the remarkably entertaining film ‘Les Saignantes’. Bekolo uses complex narrative structures and creative subject matters to display the contemporary Cameroonian society. Les Saignantes is a science fiction film based in the year 2025 and centered on the dubious activities of two Cameroonian girls. After Majolie finds the SGCC is dead in her bed, she calls up her friend Chouchou after which a series of grotesque events unfold as they hire people to cut and dispose. This is followed by a reattachment of a random cadaver to the SGCC’s head after they realize that the wake of such an important official (WIP) cannot be bypassed. This plot undoubtedly deviates from the conventional morally dense epic narratives of national freedom and reformation. Bekolo uses this imaginative narrative to express the subjects of corruption, socio-political hierarchies and gender roles in present-day Cameroon. He successfully
The views of African-Americans have changed drastically from the 1930s to 1980s and the film industry has been able to captures some of the more dramatic changes on film. Dating back to the 1930s, there has been films produced that depicted African-Americans as docile individuals who live to serve white families. As times changed and America made progress in integration of cultures, African-American rose to a new role on the big screen. Initially, African-Americans were introduced on the screen as closer equals to their white counter parts. However, these films did not accurately depict African-Americans as whites wrote the roles. America made greater strides towards equality in all areas, including the film industry that allowed for the development of new roles for African-Americans. This grittier and more intense approach was only achieved through African-Americans taking on the major behind the scenes. African-Americans were only to achieve a more accurate depiction onscreen as American’s perceptions of race were challenged over a 50-year period and African-Americans took on roles behind the scenes.
This book attempts to explain “what is a black film” and critiques six examples of the genre.
It is evident that Western Cultural values are diffused worldwide through the movie industry. The films are controlled by western funding and reflect Western perspectives vividly. Between the lines in the scripts, filmgoers are urged to link the Western culture and “whiteness” with positive-hence legitimate-values and accept whites dominant position. Film is a powerful medium, thus movies were created with emotional designs on the individual audience in order to control his or her mind hence Hollywood serve as the functional means for establishing the concept of white supremacy. Hollywood movies are therefore the main instruments for establishing the whit supremacy mind-set that automatically triggers the message that whites are far superior than any other race. Ideological hegemony theorizes the way in which relationships of domination and exploitation are embedded in the dominant ideas of society. To the extent that dominant ideas are internalized, they induce consent to these relationships on the part of the dominated and exploited. Blood Diamond and In the Heat of the Night are two distinct movies where the movie makers present us with two different ideological concepts, Both films portrayed the white and non white consciousness. Blood Diamond they attacked their own race as In the Heat of the Night the whites attacked the non whites . Blood Diamond showed this in a more violent way then In the Heat of the Night did. The conscious of both films were power and authority. The blacks in each of these films are seen as secondary characters which is usually a way of promoting the supremacy of whites . The movie Blood Diamond discusses the complexity of conflicts with bringing western group intt Sierra Leone. This concept also trie...
It is a common mis-conception that films are merely entertainment, and serve no other purpose than to provide for the viewer a two-hour escape from reality. This is a serious under-estimation of the power, purpose, and potential of film, because film, upon reflection, revea...
Schepelern, Peter. "Film according to Dogma: Ground Rules, Obstacles, and Liberations." Transnational Cinema in a Global North. Eds. Andrew Nestingen and Trevor G. Elkington. Detroit: Wayne State Press, 2005: 73-107
Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were the only way for African-Americans to express the deep pain that the white population placed in front of them. Singing, dancing and acting took many African-Americans to a place that no oppressor could reach; considering the exploitation of their character during the 1930's-1960's acting' was an essential technique to African American survival.
Rascaroli, Laura. "The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.2 (2008): 24-47. JSTOR. Web. 08 May 2014.
The historiography of Africa is very important. It is the only factual way we can understand the history of Africa as a continent. Archeology, art, linguistics, genetics, and indigenous written sources are all great pieces of works needed to start to understand the history of Africa. Although they all come from departments in history, together they reveal and answer the questions we have had for many years. As we learn more about the different works, it opens more questions to be answered. The questions are to help reconstruct Africa’s past and respect the existence of the continent.
It is human nature to tell stories and to appreciate and participate in theatre traditions in every society. Every culture expresses theatre and may have their own traditions that have helped pave the way for how they are today. The involvement of African-Americans has increased tremendously in theatre since the nineteenth century and continues to increase as time goes on. African-Americans have overcome many obstacles with getting their rights and the participation and involvement of Theatre was something also worth fighting for. American history has played an important role with the participation of African-Americans in theatre. Slavery occurrence in America made it difficult for blacks in America to be taken seriously and to take on the characters of more serious roles. With many obstacles in the way African-Americans fought for their rights and also for the freedom that they deserved in America. As the participation of African-Americans involvement within the theatre increase so do the movements in which help make this possible. It is the determination of these leaders, groups, and Theaters that helped increase the participation and created the success that African-Americans received throughout history in American Theatre.
The contents in this document are a critique of the documentary Taking Root. This Paper takes a systematic and analytical approach to the video and uses class and chapter concepts from CPO 3204 Contemporary African Politics.
Through its remarkable breakthroughs in film and what the camera could do, Birth of a Nation can be explored as a film that set the standards for future film development and masterpieces. However, one can never look past the way that African-Americans were horribly represented and depicted on film. This has caused this film to be such a great film to explore when studying film and especial minorities in film. This debate will continue way past my life and beyond. One must hope and believe that the ignorance of the few that still see this as a positive image of reality can be overturned and that this film can only be seen as a studying device for all those that look to explore the art of film and the sad realities that can come from the ideals of those who create film and movies.
Stewart, Jacqueline Najuma. Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity. Berkeley: U of California, 2005. Print.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
In the French film entitled Lumumba, director Raoul Peck recreates the revolutionary struggle of Patrice Lumumba, the newly elected Prime Minister of The Congolese Republic. In the movie, we do not see much of the independence struggle against the Belgian government, but we begin to see the reconstruction of the African state in African hands. While no one ever claimed that decolonization was easy, maybe this particular example can best be explained by Fanon’s simplified little quip “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. ” In this paper, I will seek to locate where this post-colonial violence is located in discourses regarding race, class and gender. Particularly, I will look at the representations of race and class, and the lack of the representation of gender, in order to draw conclusions about the nature of representation and the effects this has on anti-colonial film.
Willan, Brian. “'Cinematographic Calamity' or 'Soul-Stirring Appeal to Every Briton': Birth of a Nation in England and South Africa 1915-1931” Journal of Southern African Studies 39.01 (2013) 623-640. Web.