Flickering shadows : cinema and identity in colonial Zimbabwe / J.M. Burns ; foreword by Peter Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burns, James McDonald.

Series:

Research in international studies. Africa series ; no. 77.

Research in international studies. Africa series ; no. 77

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Zimbabwe--History.

Motion pictures.

History.

Zimbabwe.

Physical Description:

xxv, 278 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens, [Ohio] : Ohio University Center for International Studies, Ohio University Press, [2002]

Summary:

Every European power in Africa made motion pictures for its subjects, but no state invested as heavily in these films, and expected as much from them, as the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Flickering Shadows is the first book to explore this little-known world of colonial cinema. J. M. Burns pieces together the history of the cinema in Rhodesia, examining film production, audience reception, and state censorship, to reconstruct the story of how Africans in one nation became consumers of motion pictures. Movies were a valued "tool of empire" designed to assimilate Africans into a new colonial order. Inspired by an inflated confidence in the medium, Rhodesian government offcials created an African Film industry that was unprecedented in its size and scope. Transforming the lives of their subjects through cinema proved more complicated than white officials had anticipated. Although Africans embraced the medium with enthusiasm, they expressed critical opinions and demonstrated decided tastes that left colonial officials puzzled and alarmed. Flickering Shadows tells the fascinating story of how motion pictures were introduced and negotiated in a colonial setting. In doing so, it casts light on the history of the globalization of the cinema. This work is based on interviews with white and black filmmakers and African audience members, extensive archival research in Africa and England, and viewings of scores of colonial films.

Contents:

Cinema and censorship in Southern Rhodesia, 1914-1940

Watching Africans watch films: theorizing film literacy in British Africa

The central African film unit: films for Africans, 1948-1963

Monitoring African film audiences in the Central African Federation, 1948-1963

Postwar censorship in the Rhodesian Federation, 1948-1963

The Rhodesian front era, 1962-1980.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-268) and index.

ISBN:

0896802248

OCLC:

49297710