RENT TEXTBOOKS

by: Prabhu

ISBN: 9781405193030 | 1405193034

INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CINEMA provides a critical survey of the contemporary cinema of Africa and its diaspora. Focusing on key films from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Angola, Guinea-Bisseau, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Mauritius, and Martinique, this book encompasses Francophone, Lusophone, and Anglophone Africa as well as the diaspora. No book provides such a comprehensive introduction to the subject, one designed to generate critical discussion for studying and appreciating contemporary African cinema. In light of the rrecent demise of the father of African cinema (Sembene Ousmane) and the presence of a host of new directors making their mark by contributing to what is now an abundant repertoire of African films that can be analyzed in terms of periods, generations, trends, and particularities, INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CINEMA provides a timely intervention into this rich cinematic tradition.Pedagogy: Purpose-built to give students a good grounding in the issues that are raised both cinematically and critically when viewing African films from a western context, each chapter provides what could be a lesson plan, with focus on key scenes that instructors from different fields can access thematically for their own purposes (for example, in dealing with urbanization, failed nationalism, economic dependence, women's struggle, cross-cultural misunderstandings, relationship to white culture, racial identity, or generational conflicts).

Contents.INTRODUCTION.The introduction describes in detail the method for the book, explained briefly above in the method section.FRAMING SPACE.Chapter 1: Filming the City: Battle of Algiers (Algeria/Italy), Pi+ces d'identit_ (Congo/Belgium), Sugar-Cane Alley (Martinique), Blue Eyes of Yonta (Guinea-Bissau), Max and Mona (South Africa), Home Coming (Ghana), A Casablanca les anges ne volent pas [In Casablanca, Angels don't Fly] (Morocco), Faat Kine (Senegal), A Goat's Tail (Ghana).Chapter 2: Non-urban space: Dakan (Guinea), Reassemblage (USA/Sen... MOREegal), Women with Open Eyes (Togo), Life on Earth (Mali), Angano Angano (Madagascar), Quand les _toiles rencontrent la mer (Madagascar).These films provide a thought-provoking forum for considering the deep difference between the rhythms and realities of the city as compared to the non-urban spaces of Africa represented, and help to re-assess the previous chapter through a dialogic consideration in the conclusion.Chapter 3: Closed space: Silences of the Palace (Tunisia), Yacoubian Building (Egypt), Chocolat (Cameroon/France).This chapter brings to the forefront specific spaces and the various hierarchies within Tunisia, Egypt, and Cameroon.FOCUS ON CHARACTER.Chapter 4: Models of African femininity: Faat Kine (Senegal), Silences of the Palace (Tunisia), Karmen Gëi (Senegal), In Search of My Wife's Husband (Morocco).This chapter showcases Senegalese cinema by drawing on two of its remarkable films depicting women.Chapter 5: Failure of African Manhood: Xala (Senegal), Tsotsi (South Africa), Halfaouine (Tunisia), Yacoubian Building (Egypt), Sisters-in-Law (Cameroon), Faat Kine (Senegal), Karmen Geï (Senegal), Mossane (Senegal).This works as a complementary chapter to the previous one and expands the discussion of African film by juxtaposing male and female roles in realist and utopian representations.Chapter 6: Between Tradition and Modernity: A Summer in the Goulette (Tunisia), Silences of the Palace (Tunisia), Faat Kine (Senegal), Sisters-in-Law (Cameroon), Pi+ces d'identit_ (Congo/Belgium), The Little Girl who sold the Sun (Senegal/Switzerland), Ça twiste ¡ Poponguine (Senegal).The characters studied in these films introduce the perspective of children and youth as they negotiate the spaces between a colonial past and a postcolonial present.Chapter 7: Revolutionary Personhood: Black Girl (Senegal), Hero (Angola), Moolad_ (Senegal), In My country (South Africa/UK/Ireland), Battle of Algiers (Algeria/Italy), Lumumba (Congo/France/Belgium/Haiti).The real risks of revolutionary personhood in the African political and social contexts come through in these films.NARRATIVE ON SCREEN.Chapter 8: History and Utopianism: Diaspora, Postcolonialism, Colonialism: Fatou Kin_ (Senegal), Silences du palais (Tunisia), A Dry White Season (South Africa/USA), Forgiveness (South Africa), Africa, I will Fleece You (Cameroon), Colonial Misunderstanding (Cameroon), Lumumba (Congo/France/Germany/Haiti), Pi+ces d'identit_ (Congo/Belgium), A Summer in the Goulette (Tunisia), Handsworth Songs (UK), Frantz Fanon (UK), Hate (USA).The explicit relationship between past and present becomes complicated when conceiving a globalized Africa that takes into account the issues raised in chapter six.Chapter 9: African Reality as Documentary and Fiction: Genre and Auteurism Jean-Marie T_no (Cameroon), Sembene Ousmane (Senegal), Raoul Peck (Haiti), Euzhan Palcy (Martinique), Fanta Nacro (Burkina Faso) Hamed Marawan (Egypt), Salem Mekuria (Ethiopia), John Akomfrah (Ghana/UK), Gavin Hood (South Africa).The question of documen