Focus on African Films [Paperback]

Emphasizing post-independent films released since the 1950s and the burgeoning commercial film production of the last decade, Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking throughout Africa. As a whole, the collection highlights the distinct thematic, stylistic, and socioeconomic circumstances of African filmmaking. Individual essays show how conditions in Africa have generated a broad range of views and techniques, from the stylistically innovative documentaries of Jean-Marie Teno and Abderrahmane Sissako and the documentary fiction of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun to the vibrant art films of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and the new films from South Africa. Contributors also outline the direction of increasingly popular, less didactic sub-Saharan filmmaking in films such as Daniel Kamwa's Pousse-Pousse, Ngangura Mweze's La vie est belle, and Imungu Ivanga's D?l?. Up-to-date and richly informative, Focus on African Films will be essential reading for students and scholars of African film.

Contributors are Fran?oise Balogun, Brenda F. Berrian, Robert Cancel, Mbye Cham, Madeleine Cottenet-Hage, Beti Ellerson, Samba Gadjigo, Josef Gugler, Kenneth W. Harrow, Fran?oise Pfaff, Mar?a Roof, N. Frank Ukadike, Valerie Wheat, and Josephine Woll.

An in-depth survey of Africa's newest and least-known art form.

Fran?oise Pfaff is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Howard University, where she teaches courses on literature and film from France, West Africa, and the Caribbean.

Acknowledgements
Introduction by Fran?oise Pfaff
Part I: Reexamining Official History
1. Come Back South Africa: Cinematic Representations of Apartheid over Three Eras of Resistance by Robert Cancel
2. Ousmane Sembene and History on the Screen: A Look Back to the Future by Samba Gadjigo
3. Film and History in Africa: A Critical Survey of Current Trends and Tendencies by Mbye Cham
4. Fiction, Fact, and the Responsibililó6