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Book Cover
Book
Author Barlet, Olivier.

Title African cinemas : decolonising the gaze / Olivier Barlet ; translated by Chris Turner
Published London ; New York : Zed Books, 2000

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  791.43096 Bar/Acd  AVAILABLE
 MELB  791.43096 Bar/Acd  AVAILABLE
Description xii, 315 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Contents Machine generated contents note: PREFACE viii PART I THE ORIGIN, AKIN TO A PASSAGE --1 HUMAN BEINGS, NOT ANTS! 3 -- Black is black Colonial projections The ethnographic gate: involvement or -- contempt? African responses Being on the same wavelength The politics -- of everyday life Founding figures Class struggle without placards The -- novelistic path Africa first English-speaking Africa: educational cinema -- and the Hollywood dream French guardian angels Revolutionary -- filmmakers? --2 DECOLONIZING THOUGHT 34 -- Africa betrayed Unspoilt Africa Pointing the finger The mirror-space -- The primacy of the collective The freedom to say no The duty to show? --3 'PROVERBS WERE FLESH AND BLOOD': THE REFERENCE TO THE PAST 47 -- Necessary memoty Black pharaohs The struggle with oneself African -- recalcitrance History as nostalgia Legend, afalse trail? 'Shelling' -- history The African cry --4 CLOSING YOUR EYES 72 -- The refusal to mimic the West Optingfor openness Torn asunder -- by modernity 5 OPENING UP T.HE CRACKS IN IDENTITY 82 -- A unified world Symbols in motion * Reading with the heart * Passing on -- knowledge * Blocked transmission * Drawing strength from the source * An -- alternative development * The origin in doubt * Infidelities * The Marabouts' -- projective mechanism * From nudiy to modesty --6 AN OPENNESS OF APPROACH 109 -- South African introspection * Afro-American rites of passage ' Hybridized -- identity French assimilationism * Farewell to negritude * The anxiety of -- integration * A cinema of revelation --PART II AT THE WELLSPRINGS OF NARRATION --7 BLACK HUMOURS 129 -- A politicaly committedpastiche Laughing at oneself Derision as a -- strategy * A vital laughter * A cathartic parody --8 'MEN DIE, BUT WORDS REMAIN': AT THE ORIGIN OF NARRATION, ORALITY 143 -- First, silence The path of simple self-evidence The primacy of orality -- Contrapuntal symbols Cultural specifcities of the image Griots of a -- new kind The voice-off. the consciousness of the filmmaker Theatre is a -- mere waystation * Letting them tell you stories What slowness? -- Space-time A cyclical composition * Rather than heroes, the art of -- the paradox * The topicality of myth --9 'IF YOUR SONG IS NO MPROVEMENT ON SILENCE, KEEP QUIET!' 183 -- Dances of resistance * Talkingdrums The song of thepeople -- African sound --10 SPEAKING YOUR OWN LANGUAGE 195 -- The expression of lived experience * A revisited French -- Failing to reach your audience? Prioriy to the emotions * Opening up -- to multiculturalism * Is dubbing the answer? * Save the actor! --11 TOWARDS A CRITICISM BASED ON THE NEED TO EXIST 210 -- The Western diktat Towards a subjective criticism * The dead -- weight of criticism African criticism --PART III BLACK PROSPECTS? 12 'HE WHO WANTS HONEY HAS THE COURAGE TO CONFRONT THE BEES': THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING FILMS 221 -- The trials and tribulations of filming * The dream of financial autonomy -- The trials and tribulations offunding The trials and tribulations of -- production --13 THE AFRICAN AUDIENCE IS ANYTHING BUT HOMOGENEOUS 232 -- The agonies of distribution Dilapidated auditoriums The video monster -- Accompanying one's film A pluralistic audience ' A school of life --14 A FICKLE AUDIENCE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE 251 -- Aiming true ' A limited audience Promotion through festivals --15 'WHEN YOU'VE GOT MEAT TO COOK, YOU GO AND FIND SOMEONE WITH FIRE': THE LOGICS OF WESTERN AID 260 -- The heart and the head Giving and after The internationalization -- option ConsolidatingprofessionaliZation Wrestling with the blank -- page The 'Ecrans du Sud' experience A key ministry Surviving -- Planet Atria --16 TELEVISUAL STRATEGIES 278 -- Africa can make it! Getting beyond the passive 'waiting game' -- Taking television by storm --CONCLUSION 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 29 1 APPENDIX: WHERE TO SEE BLACK AFRICAN FILMS 299 --INDEX 306
Summary "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."--BOOK JACKET
Notes Includes index
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Translated from French
Subject Cinematography -- Africa.
Mass media -- Africa.
Motion pictures -- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- History.
Motion pictures -- Africa.
LC no. 00032001
ISBN 1856497429 (hbk.)
1856497437 (paperback)
Other Titles Cinémas d'Afrique noire. English