African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze

by Olivier Barlet

Overview

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 of the book traces the development of African cinema - from colonization to Afrocentrism. The author examines this development through a variety of fundamental themes: the decolonization of the imagination; the quest for legendary African origins and the mobilization of African cultural values. 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. Winner of the French National Film Centre's best filmbook of 1997 and now available in four languages, this is book which takes us into a process of learning how to look.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856497435
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/01/2000
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Olivier Barlet is film critic and chief editor of the monthly magazine Africultures (L Harmattan, Paris). He has translated many books about Africa and by African authors.
Olivier Barlet is film critic and chief editor of the monthly magazine Africultures (L Harmattan, Paris). He has translated many books about Africa and by African authors.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Part 1: Early Days, First Rites
1. Human Beings, Not Ants.
2. Decolonizing the Imagination.
3. 'Proverbs Were Once People': Referring to the Past.
4. Closing One's Eyes.
5. Prizing Open the Cracked Identity.
6. The Open Gaze.

 
Part 2: The Roots of Story-Telling
1. Black Humour.
2. Men Die but Words Remain: Narrative and the Oral Tradition
3. If Your Song is Not More Beautiful than the Silence, Then be Quiet.
4. Speaking Your Own Language.
5. Towards a Critique of Necessity.

 
Part 3: A Black Perspective?
1. 'If you want honey, you've got to take on the bees': The Difficulties of Film-making.
2. The African Public: Diversity Itself.
3. Northern Audiences Spinning like a Weathervane.
4. 'When you have meat to cook, you seek out the one who has a fire': The Logic of Western Aid.
5. Televisual Strategies.

 
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The reader will discover the book's depth and a wealth of information on the varied cinemas of Africa." --International Journal of African Historical Studies

"This is an excellent book: fresh, graceful, perspicacious, intelligent, current, and always alive with passionate sympathy for its subject... Barlet has impressive powers of synthesis, fashioning an insightful and often elegant thematic argument out of a vast quantity of material... It is hard to do justice to the richness of the book in a brief review... This is very much a book about understanding across cultures and the necessity of multiculturalism ... it is an "invitation au voyage", as Barlet says, and a singularly attractive introduction to African film." --Jonathan Haynes in Research in African Literatures

From the Publisher

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 an overview of African cinema and television. The first part traces the development of African cinema from colonization to Afrocentricism, with attention to the quest for origins and the mobilization of African cultural values. The second part analyses specific films, particularly through narrative and in terms of their African specificity in the use of silence, orality, and humor. Finally, the social and economic contexts of the African cinema and television industry are discussed. Distributed by Palgrave. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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