Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora

Analyzing art house films from the African continent and the African diaspora, this book showcases a new generation of auteurs with African origins from political, aesthetic, and spectatorship perspectives.

• Focuses on art house cinema and discusses commercial African cinema
• Enlarges our understanding of African film to include thematic and aesthetic influence
• Highlights aesthetic and political aspects including racial identity, women’s issues, and diaspora
• Heavily illustrated with over 90 film stills
• Features selected stills integral to the filmic analysis in full color
• Moves beyond Western-oriented analytical paradigms

Acknowledgments ix

1 AfricaWatch: Parameters and Contexts 1

Part I Space 33

2 The Postcolonial City: Education of the Spectator in Harrikrisna Anenden's The Cathedral 35

3 Framing the City: Africanizing Viewer and Viewed through Angle, Distance, Genre, and Movement 55

Part II Character 77

4 Models of African Femininity 79

5 African Masculinity: "We Don't Need Another Hero" 113

6 Revolutionary Personhood: Revolutionize the Spectator, or Stop,Thief! 133

Part III Narrative 155

7 Documentary Film: Situating a Style 157

8 African Narration: Narration of Africa 172

9 Jean-Marie Teno: Creating an African Repertoire 187

10 Conclusion: Inside/Outside or How to Make a Film about Africa Today 216

Filmography 234

References 238

Glossary 246

Index 251

Anjali Prabhu is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Wellesley College, USA, where she also teaches in the Cinema and Media Studies Program. The author of Hybridity: Limits, Transformations, Prospects (2007), she has published widely in journals such as Cinema Journal, International Journal of French and Francophone Studies, Levinas Studies, Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy, Diacritics, Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Literatures, Présence Francophone, and Comparative Literature Studies.

Focusing on examples of Africa’s indigenous and diasporic cinema, this volume constellates the subject anew through thematic, transnational and trans-disciplinary perspectives. The author enlarges our understanding of the subject by surveying films that are “African” not simply through their content, their locations, or the nationality of their auteurs, but through the very processes by which they affect and engage their viewers.

Exploring art house as well as commercial cinema productions, this student-friendly text identifies and probes the different techniques that create what can be called an “African” filmic experience. Through examples of key movies from across the continent and beyond – Anglophone, Francophone or Lusophone realms – the author theorizes interpretations of African cinema that move beyond the thematic commonalities of modernity and development. The volume also charts the rise of a new generation of African film makers in light of the recent death of star auteur Sembene Ousmane, and includes commentaries on issues ranging from urbanization to women’s issues and racial identity.

"Anjali Prabhu's Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora goes well beyond what might be expected of a book on the subject. For apart from its comprehensiveness, verve and lucidity, it raises philosophical and ethical questions about spectatorship that will find resonance with all scholars of cinema, wherever they may be found. The book is nothing short of a delightful and thought-provoking masterpiece."
—Ato Quayson, Center for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto

“Absorbing reading, as theoretically insightful as it is winningly and meticulously argued. I have been greatly enriched by Contemporary Cinema of Africa and the Diaspora. It is a stellar accomplishment and a significant contribution to African and diaspora film and cultural studies.”
—Tejumola Olaniyan, Louise Durham Mead Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison