| The term African Cinema usually refers to the film
production in countries south of the Sahara since they gained formal independence,
which for many countries happened in the 1960s. Some of the countries which
belong geographically to Africa, especially Egypt had devolped a national
film industry much earlier. Often African Cinema also includes African directors
living in the diaspora.
Film in Africa during the colonial era
Africa was and still is the continent of projections. Like for many african
writers, e.g. Chinua Achebe, repudiating racist sterotypes and images
about Africa and africans the colonizers had fabricated and disseminated
was an important motivation for many african film makers. In Hollywood
movies shot in the colonial era Africa is only a scenery for white actors,
a background reduced to landscapes and a few 'primitives' who inevitably
are dangerous and wild or servants satisfied with their lot. This demeaning
representations are a continuation of the 'Völkerschauen'. In the
late 19th and early 20th centuries noneuropeans were exposed in european
zoos like animals.
In the french colonies film making was formally forbidden to Africans.
The first francophone african film, L’Afrique sur Seine by Paulin
Soumanou Vieyra, was therefore shot in Paris in 1955.
Before independence only a few anticolonial films like Les statues meurent
aussi by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais about european robbery of african
art, which was forbidden by the french for 10 years , or Afrique 50 by
René Vauthier about anticolonial riots in Ivory Coat and in Upper
Volta (now Burkina Faso) could be produced.
Many of the ethnographic films produced in the colonial era by Jean Rouch
and others where rejected by african film makers because (at least in
their view) they distorted african realities.
60s and 70s
The first african film to win international recognition was Ousmane Sembènes
short La Noire de.. also known as Black Girl. It showed the despair of
an African woman who has to work as a maid in France. The writer Sembene
had turned to cinema to reach a wider audience. He is still considered
to be the 'father' of African Cinema. Sembènes native country Senegal
continued to be the most important place of production for more then a
decade.
By creating the all African film festival FESPACO in Burkina Fasoin 1969
african film had created its own forum. It takes place every two years
in alternation with the film festival Carthago in (Tunesia).
Med Hondo's O soleil O, shot in 1969, was immediately recognized. Politically
not less engaged then Sembène, he chose a more unquiet filmic language
to show what it means to be a stranger in France having the 'wrong' colour.
Djibril Diop Mambéty's sophisticated comedy Touki Bouki (1973)
about a young couple in Dakar which at all costs wants to make a trip
to Paris is still considered one of the best african films ever made.
Conditions of Production and Reception
African film makers have a difficult access to their african audiences.
The commercial cinemas often have to book blindly and show primarily Hollywood
or Bollywood films. Where african audiences do have access to african
films, e.g. at the Panafrican film festival in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso),
they usually show a lively interest in the films. Most African film makers
still rely heavily on european institutions for financing and producing
their films. A commercially viable video production has been set up in
Nigeria.
The way African film makers see themselves and their mission
The political approach of African film makers is clearly evident in the
Charte du cinéaste africain [Charta of the african cinéaste]
which the union of african film makers FEPACI adopted in Algiers in 1975.
The film makers start by recalling the neocolonial condition of African
societies. "The situation contemporary african societies live in
is one in which they are dominated on several levels: politically, economically
and culturally." In this situation african filmmakers saw it as their
social resposability to further the growth of consciousness of African
people. They stressed their solidarity with progressive filmakers in other
parts of the world. African cinema is often seen a part of Third Cinema.
In the words of Souleymane Cissé: "African filmmakers' first
task is to show that people here are human beings and to help people discover
the African values that can be of service to others. The following generation
will branch out into other aspects of film. Our duty is to make people
understand that white people have lied through their images." (Thackway,
p. 39)
Some african filmmakers , e.g. Ousmane Sembène, try to give back
african history to african people by remembering the resistance to european
and islamic domination.
The role of the african film maker is often compared to traditional Griots.
Like them their task is to express and reflect commmunal experiences.
Patterns of african oral literature often recur in African films. African
film has also been influenced by traditions from other continents such
as italian neorealism, brasilian Cinema Nuevo and the theatre of Bertolt
Brecht.
Women Directors
Ethnologist and filmmaker Safi Faye was the first African women film director
to gain international recognition.
In 1972 Sarah Maldoror had shot her film Sambizanga about the liberation
struggle in Angola. Surviving women of this war are the subject of the
Documentary Les oubliées[The forgotten], made by Anne-Laure Folly
twenty years later.
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