African film : re-imagining a continent / Josef Gugler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gugler, Josef.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Africa.

Motion pictures.

Africa.

Africa--In motion pictures.

Physical Description:

xiii, 202 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press ; Cape Town : David Philip ; Oxford : James Currey, 2003.

Summary:

In "African Film: Re-imagining a Continent, Josef Gugler provides an introduction to African cinema through an analysis of 15 films made by African filmmakers. These directors set out to re-image Africa; their films offer Western viewers the opportunity to re-imagine the continent and its people. As a point of comparison, two additional films on Africa--one from Hollywood, the other from apartheid South Africa--serve to highlight African directors' altogether different perspectives. Gugler's interpretation considers the financial and technical difficulties of African film production, the intended audiences in Africa and the West, the constraints on distribution, and the critical reception of the films.

Contents:

1. Recovering the African past ; Out of Africa, 1985: settler romance in nature paradise ; Yaaba, 1989: friendship in the village that time forgot ; Keïta! 1995: transmitting the Sundjata to the next generation

2. Fighting colonialism ; Sambizanga, 1972: the martyr, his family, and the movement ; Flame, 1996: a twofold struggle

3. The struggle for majority rule in South Africa ; The gods must be crazy, 1980: The world according to apartheid ; The dry White season, 1989: a White awakening ; Mapantsula, 1988: Black resistance to White oppression ; Fools, 1997: ordinary people under apartheid

4. Betrayals of independence ; Kongi's harvest, 1970: traditional splendor and modern oppression ; Xala, 1974: impotence sexual, cultural, economic, and political ; Tableau Ferraille, 1997: the rise and abrupt fall of an honest politician ; The blue eyes of Yonta. 1992: was the struggle in vain?

5. The exploited & neglected peasantry ; Finzan, 1990: gender conflict and village solidarity ; Kasarmu Ce, 1991: peasant Islam and urban corruption

6. Between the African mass market & international recognition ; Kini and Adams, 1997: the vagaries of adult friendship ; La vie est belle, 1987: it's a wonderful life.

Notes:

Originally published: Oxford : J. Currey, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 194-195) and index.

ISBN:

025334350X

0253216435

0852555628

085255561X

OCLC:

52520253