Abstract The uprisings that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 brought to world attention the revolutionary potential of youth in the face of social injustice and political repression. This article explores how the so-called Arab Spring foregrounded Moroccan youth's alternative conceptions of citizenship and being young in the MENA region today. Using the emergence of citizen cinema as a case study, I will examine the subjective politics of Moroccan youth's alternative to dominant political and social authority. Made, self-produced and distributed online free of charge by a young and self-avowed citizen filmmaker, Nadir Bouhmouch's debut documentary My Makhzen and Me (2012) does not pretend to offer an objective account of Morocco's so-called Arab Spring. Instead, the filmmaker focuses on relating his own personal story as a young upper-class Moroccan student in San Diego, who returned to the country in the summer of 2011 armed with a camera as his weapon in the February 20 Movement's battle for democratic citizenship and social justice in Morocco. In this article, I will show how the subjective point of view structuring this documentary offers a unique perspective not only on Morocco's Arab Spring but also on the impossibility of representing citizenship objectively on the documentary camera. The article ultimately argues that because the personal is always already political in North African documentary filmmaking since 2011, the subjective point of view allows for the emergence of the insurgent citizenship of the region's youth.
{"title":"Insurgent citizenship: Youth, political activism and citizen cinema in post-2011 Morocco","authors":"Jamal Bahmad","doi":"10.1386/jac_00011_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00011_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The uprisings that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 brought to world attention the revolutionary potential of youth in the face of social injustice and political repression. This article explores how the so-called Arab Spring foregrounded Moroccan\u0000 youth's alternative conceptions of citizenship and being young in the MENA region today. Using the emergence of citizen cinema as a case study, I will examine the subjective politics of Moroccan youth's alternative to dominant political and social authority. Made, self-produced and\u0000 distributed online free of charge by a young and self-avowed citizen filmmaker, Nadir Bouhmouch's debut documentary My Makhzen and Me (2012) does not pretend to offer an objective account of Morocco's so-called Arab Spring. Instead, the filmmaker focuses on relating his own personal\u0000 story as a young upper-class Moroccan student in San Diego, who returned to the country in the summer of 2011 armed with a camera as his weapon in the February 20 Movement's battle for democratic citizenship and social justice in Morocco. In this article, I will show how the subjective point\u0000 of view structuring this documentary offers a unique perspective not only on Morocco's Arab Spring but also on the impossibility of representing citizenship objectively on the documentary camera. The article ultimately argues that because the personal is always already political in North African\u0000 documentary filmmaking since 2011, the subjective point of view allows for the emergence of the insurgent citizenship of the region's youth.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48487427","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}
Abstract Since 2013, the Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri has released a film each year, each of which has met with success at international festivals. All of these films transgress narrative and aesthetic cinematic boundaries, and The Sea is Behind (2015) is no exception: in a fable about the relations between human beings in a society that is losing its ethical and moral orientations, it invites us to consider our perception of the Other. The first part of the article addresses the active construction of its narrative from narrative fragments; the second part focuses on the ways in which the film's fragmented/composite narrative structure is reinforced by aesthetic means, so that, as the complex theme of the position and perception of marginalized groups is developed, new perspectives open up at the interstices, creating an impression of the dehumanizing conditions of life in this society.
{"title":"Cinema is a country: The transgressive power of images in The Sea is Behind by Hicham Lasri","authors":"Ute Fendler","doi":"10.1386/jac_00010_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00010_1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since 2013, the Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri has released a film each year, each of which has met with success at international festivals. All of these films transgress narrative and aesthetic cinematic boundaries, and The Sea is Behind (2015) is no exception:\u0000 in a fable about the relations between human beings in a society that is losing its ethical and moral orientations, it invites us to consider our perception of the Other. The first part of the article addresses the active construction of its narrative from narrative fragments; the second part\u0000 focuses on the ways in which the film's fragmented/composite narrative structure is reinforced by aesthetic means, so that, as the complex theme of the position and perception of marginalized groups is developed, new perspectives open up at the interstices, creating an impression of the dehumanizing\u0000 conditions of life in this society.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48386534","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}
Drawing on the thought of Achille Mbembé and Jacques Rancière, I observe the spatiotemporal proximity of the Marikana massacre and the production of an Afrikaans musical called Pretville (‘Funville’), attempting to understand the intricate dialectics of othering. I specifically consider the persistence of this mechanism in the ‘Afrikaner volksiel’, a metaphysical construct ostensibly uniting white Afrikaans speakers. To this end, I contextualize Pretville within the larger Afrikaner cultural project before maintaining that the text exhibits a fervent forgetfulness of the South African socio-political landscape. It is thus an aporetic text in that it deconstructs itself through the presences implied in their very invisibility, particularly the present-absence of the racialized labour exploitation buttressing an affluent neo-liberal society. I conclude that, through this entanglement, the world of Marikana is inseparable from the world of Pretville.
{"title":"Unravelling Pretville (Korsten, 2012) and encountering Marikana: The superfluous cheer of the Afrikaner volksiel","authors":"Emelia Steenekamp","doi":"10.1386/jac_00005_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00005_1","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on the thought of Achille Mbembé and Jacques Rancière, I observe the spatiotemporal proximity of the Marikana massacre and the production of an Afrikaans musical called Pretville (‘Funville’), attempting to understand the intricate dialectics of othering.\u0000 I specifically consider the persistence of this mechanism in the ‘Afrikaner volksiel’, a metaphysical construct ostensibly uniting white Afrikaans speakers. To this end, I contextualize Pretville within the larger Afrikaner cultural project before maintaining that the text exhibits\u0000 a fervent forgetfulness of the South African socio-political landscape. It is thus an aporetic text in that it deconstructs itself through the presences implied in their very invisibility, particularly the present-absence of the racialized labour exploitation buttressing an affluent neo-liberal\u0000 society. I conclude that, through this entanglement, the world of Marikana is inseparable from the world of Pretville.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48718748","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}
During apartheid, a documentary film movement emerged, capturing ordinary people taking on the oppressive government and the exploitative capitalist industry. People were shown at work and in their communities organizing strikes, protesting against repression, and being subjected to violence. This grassroots film movement, which has been described as a cinema of resistance, served as a tool to educate viewers, document violence and inequality, and mobilize support against the apartheid regime. Two decades after the end of apartheid, a similar set of resistance films has begun to emerge – with the difference that these films are holding the democratically elected government accountable. These documentaries give voice to the disenfranchised masses for whom the multiracial democracy has not brought substantial change. The African National Congress-led government has sanctioned actions echoing those that occurred under apartheid, including forced removals and the massacre of protestors.Two films, Dear Mandela (Kell and Nizza, 2012) and Miners Shot Down (Desai, 2014), capture this and are indicative of a new wave of resistance documentaries.
{"title":"Resistance documentaries in post-apartheid South Africa: Dear Mandela (Kell and Nizza, 2012) and Miners Shot Down (Desai, 2014)","authors":"Cara Moyer-Duncan","doi":"10.1386/jac_00004_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00004_1","url":null,"abstract":"During apartheid, a documentary film movement emerged, capturing ordinary people taking on the oppressive government and the exploitative capitalist industry. People were shown at work and in their communities organizing strikes, protesting against repression, and being subjected to\u0000 violence. This grassroots film movement, which has been described as a cinema of resistance, served as a tool to educate viewers, document violence and inequality, and mobilize support against the apartheid regime. Two decades after the end of apartheid, a similar set of resistance films has\u0000 begun to emerge – with the difference that these films are holding the democratically elected government accountable. These documentaries give voice to the disenfranchised masses for whom the multiracial democracy has not brought substantial change. The African National Congress-led\u0000 government has sanctioned actions echoing those that occurred under apartheid, including forced removals and the massacre of protestors.Two films, Dear Mandela (Kell and Nizza, 2012) and Miners Shot Down (Desai, 2014), capture this and are indicative of a new wave of resistance documentaries.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47226371","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 documentary film Apartheid Did Not Die (Lowery, 1998) raises a theoretical problematic concerning the nature of historical change. In this article, an attempt is made to understand how the film represents the ‘post’ in the post-apartheid era, particularly with regard to its premises about historical change in societies that have recently emerged from an oppressive past, and the responses that the film occasioned. I show that through narrative and documentary strategies, Apartheid Did Not Die institutes a singular temporal rhythm for South Africa and is as such a metanarrative. Yet, it is as a metanarrative that the film occasioned a wide array of public engagements. Though powerful and provocative, the film’s arguments point to the limits of generalizing analyses and polemical modes of representation. However, its generalizing tone also shows the productivity of polemic as occasioned by the public responses it brought into being. Considering the theoretically problematic elements of the documentary form offers a critical perspective on the responses the film elicited in the public sphere.
{"title":"Unsettling the ‘New’? Apartheid Did Not Die (Lowery, 1998)","authors":"L. Modisane","doi":"10.1386/jac_00003_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00003_1","url":null,"abstract":"The documentary film Apartheid Did Not Die (Lowery, 1998) raises a theoretical problematic concerning the nature of historical change. In this article, an attempt is made to understand how the film represents the ‘post’ in the post-apartheid era, particularly with regard\u0000 to its premises about historical change in societies that have recently emerged from an oppressive past, and the responses that the film occasioned. I show that through narrative and documentary strategies, Apartheid Did Not Die institutes a singular temporal rhythm for South Africa and is\u0000 as such a metanarrative. Yet, it is as a metanarrative that the film occasioned a wide array of public engagements. Though powerful and provocative, the film’s arguments point to the limits of generalizing analyses and polemical modes of representation. However, its generalizing tone\u0000 also shows the productivity of polemic as occasioned by the public responses it brought into being. Considering the theoretically problematic elements of the documentary form offers a critical perspective on the responses the film elicited in the public sphere.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44483680","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":"Journal of African Cinemas: Special Edition on contemporary South African cinema","authors":"Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk, A. Lawrence","doi":"10.1386/jac_00001_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00001_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1386/jac_00001_2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43388586","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 a sociological approach to analyse David Lister’s Soweto Green: This is a ‘Tree’ Story (1995) and Henk Pretorius’ Fanie Fourie’s Lobola (2013). Although both films, made nearly twenty years apart, fall under the broad category of ‘rainbow nation’ comedies, they indicate a shift in the representations and understanding of South African identities from the highly politicized identities of the 1990s to the emergence of hybrid identities. This shift provides insights into the ways in which post-apartheid South African society has evolved, while at the same time maintaining some continuities. Analysing comedies is particularly useful because the success of comedy depends highly on the social perceptions and world-views of the audience. Thus, comedies can provide great insights into the economic and sociopolitical conditions of the societies within which they emerge. The article will also explore the ideological implications of embedding rainbowism within fairy-tale romances.
{"title":"Outsiders, fairy tales and rainbowism in South African comedies: Soweto Green: This is a ‘Tree’ Story (Lister, 1995) and Fanie Fourie’s Lobola (Pretorius, 2013)","authors":"N. Mdege","doi":"10.1386/jac_00002_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00002_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses a sociological approach to analyse David Lister’s Soweto Green: This is a ‘Tree’ Story (1995) and Henk Pretorius’ Fanie Fourie’s Lobola (2013). Although both films, made nearly twenty years apart, fall under the broad category of ‘rainbow\u0000 nation’ comedies, they indicate a shift in the representations and understanding of South African identities from the highly politicized identities of the 1990s to the emergence of hybrid identities. This shift provides insights into the ways in which post-apartheid South African society\u0000 has evolved, while at the same time maintaining some continuities. Analysing comedies is particularly useful because the success of comedy depends highly on the social perceptions and world-views of the audience. Thus, comedies can provide great insights into the economic and sociopolitical\u0000 conditions of the societies within which they emerge. The article will also explore the ideological implications of embedding rainbowism within fairy-tale romances.","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44804966","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}
Noem my Skollie: Call me Thief (DIR. Daryne Joshua, August 2016) South Africa: Maxi-D TV Productions
Noem my Skollie:叫我小偷。Daryne Joshua, 2016年8月)南非:max - d TV Productions
{"title":"Film Review","authors":"S. Macintyre","doi":"10.1386/jac_00007_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00007_5","url":null,"abstract":"Noem my Skollie: Call me Thief (DIR. Daryne Joshua, August 2016) South Africa: Maxi-D TV Productions","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41335555","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}
Gaze Regimes: Film and Feminisms in Africa, Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann (eds) (2015) Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 264 pp., ISBN-10 186-8-14856-4, p/bk, $26.87Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora, Anjali Prabhu (2014) Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-40519-303-0, 261 pp., p/bk, $40.95
{"title":"Reviews","authors":"L. Dovey, P. Frassinelli","doi":"10.1386/jac_00006_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jac_00006_5","url":null,"abstract":"Gaze Regimes: Film and Feminisms in Africa, Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann (eds) (2015) Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 264 pp., ISBN-10 186-8-14856-4, p/bk, $26.87Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora, Anjali Prabhu (2014) Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley Blackwell,\u0000 ISBN 978-1-40519-303-0, 261 pp., p/bk, $40.95","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42492659","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":"Between political and aesthetic efficacy: 40 years of audio-visual practice in lusophone Africa","authors":"Carolin Overhoff Ferreira","doi":"10.1386/JAC.10.3.187_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JAC.10.3.187_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41188,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cinemas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42271584","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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