African Filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara

by Roy Armes

Overview

African cinema is a vibrant, diverse, and relatively new art form, which continues to draw the attention of an ever-expanding worldwide audience. African Filmmaking is the first comprehensive study in English linking filmmaking in the Maghreb with that in the 12 independent states of francophone West Africa. Roy Armes examines a wide range of issues common to filmmakers throughout the region: the socio-political context, filmmaking in Africa before the mid-1960s, the involvement of African and French governments, questions of national and cultural identity, the issue of globalization, and, especially, the work of the filmmakers themselves over the past 40 years, with particular emphasis on younger filmmakers. Armes offers a wealth of information and a unique perspective on the history and future of African filmmaking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253218988
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	08/07/2006
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roy Armes is Emeritus Professor of Film at Middlesex University and author of numerous books on cinema, including Postcolonial Images: Studies in North African Film (IUP, 2005), Arab and African Film Making (with Lizbeth Malkmus), and Dictionary of North African Film Makers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Acronyms
Introduction
1. The African Experience
Part I. Context
2. Beginnings
3. African Initiatives
4. The French Connection
Part II. Confronting Reality
5. Liberation and Postcolonial Society
6. Individual Struggle
Part III. New Identities
7. Experimental Narratives
8. Exemplary Tales
Part IV. The New Millennium
9. The Post-Independence Generation
10. Mahamat Saleh Haroun (Chad)
11. Dani Kouyaté (Burkina Faso)
12. Raja Amari (Tunisia)
13. Faouzi Bensaidi (Morocco)
14. Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania)
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Feb. 2008 - Net

"African Filmmaking is very much a film studies narrative... For classes that cover this terrain, it is supremely useful for students.[1] Not only does Armes canvass enormous territory, succinctly and in elegant prose, but he has also made a judicious selection of directors and films. Most important, he takes an approach that brings together North Africa and Francophone West and Central Africa to draw out insights that might otherwise be blurred.... —H—AfrArts"

Feb. 2008 - Net

African Filmmaking is very much a film studies narrative . . . For classes that cover this terrain, it is supremely useful for students.[1] Not only does Armes canvass enormous territory, succinctly and in elegant prose, but he has also made a judicious selection of directors and films. Most important, he takes an approach that brings together North Africa and Francophone West and Central Africa to draw out insights that might otherwise be blurred . . . . —H—AfrArts

AfrArts

African Filmmaking is very much a film studies narrative . . . For classes that cover this terrain, it is supremely useful for students. Not only does Armes canvass enormous territory, succinctly and in elegant prose, but he has also made a judicious selection of directors and films. Most important, he takes an approach that brings together North Africa and Francophone West and Central Africa to draw out insights that might otherwise be blurred . . .

Editorial Reviews

"The strength of Armes's book is its concise and fairly coherent presentation of most of the major issues that must be considered when studying African cinema.39.2 Summer 2008"—DAYNA OSCHERWITZ, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

". . . the book addresses the sociopolitical context, filmmaking in Africa prior to the mid—1960s, the involvement of African and French governments, and matters of national/cultural identity and globalization."—Communication Booknotes Quarterly

". . . Armes' book covers a broad range of film—making, from the experimental work of Jean Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon) to the fiction of Nabil Ayouch (Morocco), and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in African film."—Sight & Sound

". . . This conscientious, scholarly work exists because attention must be paid, not because the world is about to experience a surge of films from Africa. . . . Highly recommended. Upper—division undergraduates through faculty."—Choice

"African Filmmaking is very much a film studies narrative . . . For classes that cover this terrain, it is supremely useful for students.[1] Not only does Armes canvass enormous territory, succinctly and in elegant prose, but he has also made a judicious selection of directors and films. Most important, he takes an approach that brings together North Africa and Francophone West and Central Africa to draw out insights that might otherwise be blurred . . . . —H—AfrArts"—Net, Feb. 2008

From the Publisher

The strength of Armes's book is its concise and fairly coherent presentation of most of the major issues that must be considered when studying African cinema.39.2 Summer 2008

SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY - DAYNA OSCHERWITZ

. . . This conscientious, scholarly work exists because attention must be paid, not because the world is about to experience a surge of films from Africa. . . . Highly recommended. Upper—division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice

. . . the book addresses the sociopolitical context, filmmaking in Africa prior to the mid—1960s, the involvement of African and French governments, and matters of national/cultural identity and globalization.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

"African Filmmaking is very much a film studies narrative... For classes that cover this terrain, it is supremely useful for students.[1] Not only does Armes canvass enormous territory, succinctly and in elegant prose, but he has also made a judicious selection of directors and films. Most important, he takes an approach that brings together North Africa and Francophone West and Central Africa to draw out insights that might otherwise be blurred.... —H—AfrArts" —Net, Feb. 2008

Feb. 2008 Net

"The strength of Armes's book is its concise and fairly coherent presentation of most of the major issues that must be considered when studying African cinema." —DAYNA OSCHERWITZ, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY, RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES, 39.2 Summer 2008

— DAYNA OSCHERWITZ, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

Research In African Literatures

. . . [S]upremely useful for students . . . draw[s] out insights that might otherwise be blurred . . .
—Mahir Saul, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

H-AfrArts

This throughly researched study charts the beginnings of film-making in north and francophone west Africa, and it stretches from the post-colonial period to the post-independence generation … Armes' book covers a broad range of film-making, from the experienced work of Jean Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon) to the fiction of Nabil Ayouch (Morocco), and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in African film.

Sight & Sound