The cinema as a medium and an art form has been a major consideration in Africa’s struggles against colonialism. These struggles, which encompass aspirations to establish Africa’s cultural and political autonomy in the postcolonial era, are ongoing. Marking the 26th edition of the Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television (FESPACO) therefore was considered as an important opportunity for reflection. More so, the occasion was taken as a call to re-engage with the challenge of shaping and transforming ‘the Continent’s greatest cultural event’ for the future. The 2019 festival was launched around the colloquium theme: ‘Confronting our memory and shaping the future of a Pan-African cinema in its essence, economy and diversity’. This article begins with an account of the colloquium and reflects on the knowledge production dimension of the festival, which has been a core component of FESPACO’s identity and existence. It also seeks to situate the event of the 50th anniversary in a continuum of critical discussions about the festival, its past, present and future, and in relation to the seminal aspirations of African filmmakers for an African cinema, its challenges and opportunities.
{"title":"Memory and/in the mirror: FESPACO, a platform for a global Africa?","authors":"Imruh Bakari","doi":"10.1386/jac_00062_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00062_1","url":null,"abstract":"The cinema as a medium and an art form has been a major consideration in Africa’s struggles against colonialism. These struggles, which encompass aspirations to establish Africa’s cultural and political autonomy in the postcolonial era, are ongoing. Marking the 26th edition of the Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television (FESPACO) therefore was considered as an important opportunity for reflection. More so, the occasion was taken as a call to re-engage with the challenge of shaping and transforming ‘the Continent’s greatest cultural event’ for the future. The 2019 festival was launched around the colloquium theme: ‘Confronting our memory and shaping the future of a Pan-African cinema in its essence, economy and diversity’. This article begins with an account of the colloquium and reflects on the knowledge production dimension of the festival, which has been a core component of FESPACO’s identity and existence. It also seeks to situate the event of the 50th anniversary in a continuum of critical discussions about the festival, its past, present and future, and in relation to the seminal aspirations of African filmmakers for an African cinema, its challenges and opportunities.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47417833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is a contribution to the celebration the 50th anniversary of FESPACO. It is divided in two major parts. The first takes stock of some of the most important debates that have traversed the festival since its inception, offers a sense of the significance of the festival and its experience, briefly reviews the Black Camera volumes on FESPACO and introduces the unique essays commissioned for this Special Issue. The second half examines three important issues related to the future of FESPACO and African cinema more generally: the centrality of histories and memories with an examination of the new Classics section of the festival, the extraversion and dependency of the political economies of African cinema, their impact on the forms, circulation and reception of African cinema, and their significance for FESPACO, and, finally the urgent need to address questions of sovereignty and territorial integrity on the continent as sine qua non for the very existence, survival and blossoming of an African film and audiovisual industry, liable to continue and potentially complete the unfinished emancipatory project at the heart of the festival.
{"title":"FESPACO@50 and beyond: Dialectics of an emancipatory project","authors":"Aboubakar Sanogo","doi":"10.1386/jac_00059_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00059_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a contribution to the celebration the 50th anniversary of FESPACO. It is divided in two major parts. The first takes stock of some of the most important debates that have traversed the festival since its inception, offers a sense of the significance of the festival and its experience, briefly reviews the Black Camera volumes on FESPACO and introduces the unique essays commissioned for this Special Issue. The second half examines three important issues related to the future of FESPACO and African cinema more generally: the centrality of histories and memories with an examination of the new Classics section of the festival, the extraversion and dependency of the political economies of African cinema, their impact on the forms, circulation and reception of African cinema, and their significance for FESPACO, and, finally the urgent need to address questions of sovereignty and territorial integrity on the continent as sine qua non for the very existence, survival and blossoming of an African film and audiovisual industry, liable to continue and potentially complete the unfinished emancipatory project at the heart of the festival.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43978152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FESPACO: A Pan-Africanist view of African film festivals","authors":"M. Mhando","doi":"10.1386/jac_00058_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00058_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45427897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article uses the changing fortunes of actors at the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) over the last 50 years as a point of departure to examine how their creative agency and professional opportunities have been delimited by the dominant film culture in West Africa. Taking into consideration the various efforts, such as awards and the organization of colloquia, made by the festival to recognize their work, it argues that the discontinuity of such promotion has kept them overshadowed by directors, for whom the festival was initially established. It examines the iconography of the star as introduced to Africa by commercial imports and deconstructed by filmmakers like Djibril Diop Mambéty and Flora Gomes. This article posits that the transnational circulation of certain key performers within West African cinema bears the promise of a more elaborate network of African film production and distribution to come.
{"title":"Out of the limelight: The privileging of auteurs over actors at FESPACO","authors":"J. Pomp","doi":"10.1386/jac_00061_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00061_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses the changing fortunes of actors at the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) over the last 50 years as a point of departure to examine how their creative agency and professional opportunities have been delimited by the dominant film culture in West Africa. Taking into consideration the various efforts, such as awards and the organization of colloquia, made by the festival to recognize their work, it argues that the discontinuity of such promotion has kept them overshadowed by directors, for whom the festival was initially established. It examines the iconography of the star as introduced to Africa by commercial imports and deconstructed by filmmakers like Djibril Diop Mambéty and Flora Gomes. This article posits that the transnational circulation of certain key performers within West African cinema bears the promise of a more elaborate network of African film production and distribution to come.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49305613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Censorship decisions on cinematic works in Egypt have been characterized by their inconsistency due to the intentional lack of definition of what would constitute a threat to politics, religion and morality. Such fluidity has forced filmmakers to practise self-censorship and deterred them from tackling Coptic problems for fear of igniting sectarianism, as censorship would claim. This article shows the role of public opinion during the period of political instability and aspiration for freedom after the 25 January 2011 Egyptian Revolution in facilitating the approval of the controversial script of Amr Salama’s Excuse My French (2014), which deals with the issue of discrimination against minority Copts in public schools, after five rejections by the censors.
{"title":"Censorship, public opinion and the representation of Coptic minority in contemporary Egyptian cinema: The case of Amr Salama’s Lamo’aķhza (Excuse My French) (2014)","authors":"Nevine Abraham","doi":"10.1386/jac_00053_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00053_1","url":null,"abstract":"Censorship decisions on cinematic works in Egypt have been characterized by their inconsistency due to the intentional lack of definition of what would constitute a threat to politics, religion and morality. Such fluidity has forced filmmakers to practise self-censorship and deterred them from tackling Coptic problems for fear of igniting sectarianism, as censorship would claim. This article shows the role of public opinion during the period of political instability and aspiration for freedom after the 25 January 2011 Egyptian Revolution in facilitating the approval of the controversial script of Amr Salama’s Excuse My French (2014), which deals with the issue of discrimination against minority Copts in public schools, after five rejections by the censors.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46134609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transnational cinema in Southern Africa 1977–2000: Omissions and errors – Pan-Africanism vs. nationalism","authors":"Simon Bright","doi":"10.1386/jac_00054_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00054_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47103778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This practice-led participatory study seeks to probe the extent to which ordinary people, in their everyday spaces, and whose voices are absent or co-opted in ‘traditional’ cinema, can actively participate in narrating their stories through short films. The project, titled Utaifa, entailed working with a focus group of eleven members of the Abakuria community in Kenya, over eight days, to prod-use three shorts. It relies of Homi Bhabha’s cultural difference ideas, Nico Carpentier’s maximalist media participation theory and conceptual discourses on self-representations. The article has three broad sections. The first offers insight into the Utaifa participants discussing their three shorts. The second unpacks the study’s rationale discussing opportunities presented by access to digital platforms, gender dynamics in marginalized communities, dominance by media elites in representations, ubiquity of grand narratives at the expense of self-representations and the language question. The third section delves into the study’s important insights and lessons.
{"title":"Voicing ordinary people and everyday narratives through participatory cinema","authors":"A. T. Ambala","doi":"10.1386/jac_00049_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00049_1","url":null,"abstract":"This practice-led participatory study seeks to probe the extent to which ordinary people, in their everyday spaces, and whose voices are absent or co-opted in ‘traditional’ cinema, can actively participate in narrating their stories through short films. The project, titled Utaifa, entailed working with a focus group of eleven members of the Abakuria community in Kenya, over eight days, to prod-use three shorts. It relies of Homi Bhabha’s cultural difference ideas, Nico Carpentier’s maximalist media participation theory and conceptual discourses on self-representations. The article has three broad sections. The first offers insight into the Utaifa participants discussing their three shorts. The second unpacks the study’s rationale discussing opportunities presented by access to digital platforms, gender dynamics in marginalized communities, dominance by media elites in representations, ubiquity of grand narratives at the expense of self-representations and the language question. The third section delves into the study’s important insights and lessons.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48599086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The 2019 Oscar winner, Parasite attracted millions to South Korean cinemas even before its success in Hollywood. Nigerian cinema is also growing, with local movies topping the theatrical box office and new cinemas being built. Meanwhile, in South Africa, feature film production and cinema attendance are declining without significant transformation of access to the means of film production or to distribution and exhibition. Practical propositions, including the implementation of quotas and taxes, are presented as remedies for the survival of South African cinema, particularly in relation to content creation and the expansion of the exhibition infrastructure.
{"title":"Theatrical cinema in South Africa: The Parasite within, South Korea as a model for survival","authors":"D. Brown","doi":"10.1386/jac_00043_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00043_1","url":null,"abstract":"The 2019 Oscar winner, Parasite attracted millions to South Korean cinemas even before its success in Hollywood. Nigerian cinema is also growing, with local movies topping the theatrical box office and new cinemas being built. Meanwhile, in South Africa, feature film production\u0000 and cinema attendance are declining without significant transformation of access to the means of film production or to distribution and exhibition. Practical propositions, including the implementation of quotas and taxes, are presented as remedies for the survival of South African cinema,\u0000 particularly in relation to content creation and the expansion of the exhibition infrastructure.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46434587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Black and White Bioscope: Making Movies in Africa 1899 to 1925, Neil Parsons (2018)Bristol and Pretoria: Intellect and Protea Publishers, xii + 252 pp.,ISBN 978-1-78320-943-9 (Intellect)/ISBN 978-1-48530-955-0 (Protea), h/bk, GBP 55/R 325
评论：《黑白生物镜：1899年至1925年在非洲拍摄电影》，Neil Parsons（2018），Bristol and Pretoria:Intellect and Protea Publishers，xii+252页，ISBN 978-1-78320-943-9（Intellect）/ISBN 978-1-48530-955-0（Protea），h/bk，英镑55/R 325
{"title":"Black and White Bioscope: Making Movies in Africa 1899 to 1925, Neil Parsons (2018)","authors":"A. Jansen van Vuuren","doi":"10.1386/jac_00045_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00045_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Black and White Bioscope: Making Movies in Africa 1899 to 1925, Neil Parsons (2018)Bristol and Pretoria: Intellect and Protea Publishers, xii + 252 pp.,ISBN 978-1-78320-943-9 (Intellect)/ISBN 978-1-48530-955-0 (Protea), h/bk, GBP 55/R 325","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45532336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the history of African cinema, there is a nexus between films and the colonial imperial project. That is, products of cinema and cinematic practices shaped the process of colonialism in the specific case of Africa. Predicated largely on archival documents, this study explores how cinema was regulated in the major towns and cities in the Gold Coast during the colonial era. Ghanaian cinema has a considerably long historical narrative, however, much of what is known about the history of cinema in Ghana, particularly, on film screening, censorship and exhibition practices, is rather little. Thus, it is with this gap that this study attempts to fill and make a useful contribution to Ghanaian film history. The colonial experience set the basis for cinematic houses, film production, censorship, distribution and ideological concerns in African cinema. This study is framed within the relationship between cinema and history, with a specific focus on Ghana. This article concludes that while film exhibition, censorship and licensing stimulated the growth of art, particularly cinema, they further inflated the colonial imperial agenda in the Gold Coast.
{"title":"Reconstructing cinematic activities in the early twentieth century: Gold Coast (Ghana)","authors":"Augustine Danso","doi":"10.1386/jac_00051_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00051_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the history of African cinema, there is a nexus between films and the colonial imperial project. That is, products of cinema and cinematic practices shaped the process of colonialism in the specific case of Africa. Predicated largely on archival documents, this study explores how cinema was regulated in the major towns and cities in the Gold Coast during the colonial era. Ghanaian cinema has a considerably long historical narrative, however, much of what is known about the history of cinema in Ghana, particularly, on film screening, censorship and exhibition practices, is rather little. Thus, it is with this gap that this study attempts to fill and make a useful contribution to Ghanaian film history. The colonial experience set the basis for cinematic houses, film production, censorship, distribution and ideological concerns in African cinema. This study is framed within the relationship between cinema and history, with a specific focus on Ghana. This article concludes that while film exhibition, censorship and licensing stimulated the growth of art, particularly cinema, they further inflated the colonial imperial agenda in the Gold Coast.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43664787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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