African cinema has certain aesthetics and politics that differ from cinema within the United States. The politics and aesthetics of African film tends to reference themes of liberation, self identity and allegories referring to colonialism. Three films that were viewed in class this year that display each of these politics are Lumumba, Pieces D'Identites, and Afrique, Je Te Plumerai. The first politic and aesthetic African films tend to reference the most is liberation. A good example of a film that shows this politic is the film Lumumba directed by Raoul Peck. This film was released in 2001 and is about the life of the former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba. The film examines the liberation of the …show more content…
A good example of a film viewed during this semester with this aesthetic is Afrique, Je Te Plumerai. This film was released in 1992 and directed by Jean Marie Teno. This film is about the history of the west African country of Cameroon. This film starts with the first contact the area which would become Cameroon had with European missionaries, to German and French colonialism, and finally to present day and how the colonialism affected the people of Cameroon. This uses allegories for colonialism through showing how the literature taught in schools and most of the books in the libraries are by White authors and that they have very little literature by Black authors taught in schools or displayed in libraries. Also the name of the film “Afrique, Je Te Plumerai” means “Africa, I Pluck You”. This is an allegory of how colonialism has plucked all of the Cameroonian history from the people and has replaced it with European history. This aesthetic would never be used in a Hollywood film due to the fact that the United States is a country that goes around attacking and colonizing other countries for their natural resources and to build an empire. Hollywood actually makes films with the complete opposite of this aesthetic where the film its film is about how invading other countries and killing people made U.S. soldiers sad. All in all African films have completely different politics and aesthetics than films made in the U.S. The film Lumumba shows the politics of liberation. The film Pieces D’Identities shows the aesthetics of self identity. The film Afrique, Je Te Plumerai shows the aesthetics of allegories of colonialism. In conclusion Hollywood would not dare to touch the politics nor aesthetics of these films due to Hollywood’s prejudices and other
The documentary is critical in providing more information related to how Africans
The drama-comedy film Mississippi Masala (1991) directed by Mira Nair explores an interracial love story between Meena, an Indian woman, and Demetrius, an African-American, portrayed by Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington, respectively. This is one of those movies that I had high hopes for and anticipated that by the end I would feel so empowered and moved that it would be impossible to not constantly hype up the motion picture to friends and strangers. To my relief, those expectations were met. I truly and deeply was so encapsulated and emotionally committed to this feature because it was massively progressive and transcended the norm of the time by depicting with such grace and tact, the power dynamics, racial hierarchy, colorism, and social contexts between the two racial groups in Uganda and the American south.
Through the African films, Camp de Thiaroye and Le Grand Blanc de Lambarene there are new views and topics that arise, which are not emphasized in the usual representations of African colonial experiences. Usually there is a Western, impersonal side of the history, which is not examined further and widely accepted. Through the films of African filmmakers, people are able to encounter the unmentioned perspectives and perceptions of historical events that affected the Africans substantially.
African food is not the only thing expanding to the United States; African movies can be found at most African shops that sell food. Most of these movies are produced by Nigerians, due to France has financially backed Nigeria films. Most of these films are in English, some in French and few in Pidgin English and French. Many popular movies take western movie themes and put an originally African twist on them. Africans in the United States are known to buy these movies as they buy their twenty-pound bag of Gari. Western Africans like these movies more than East, due to many of the movies have a reputation of having witchcraft in them.
In his book, Mistaking Africa, Curtis Keim argues that the American people have a limited specific knowledge of the world’s second largest continent, Africa. The book claims that the general understanding one develops from a study of American language and media about Africa is one that characterizes the continent as a primitive place in need of western assistance. Keim contends that television shows, movies, newspapers, magazines and even amusement parks provide inaccurate depictions of the continent to the average American eye. However, Black Panther, a movie based on the Marvel comic-books of the same name attempts to step out of this mold and portray a true image of the continent. Despite the presence of the obvious white executives and producers from Disney, the movie is composed of a predominantly black cast, a black director and a black screenwriter.
This movie was the resurgence of afro-futurism, a word coined by author Mark Dery in his famous essay entitled “Black to the Future”. Afro-futurism as defined by Jamie Broadnax “is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a black lens”. The idea of afro-futurism challenges black creatives to use their mediums to ensure we [those from African descent] are not erased from the narrative in the future as we have been in the past and present.
Film is a series of artistic moving images that make up a story. In every film, the director visually presents the storyline, different characters, the problems they encounter and how they were deal with. There is a wide range of ways to study films of various genres. We focus on film language, genre, mise-en-scene, representation, stereotypes, etc. In Black Girl, it was depicted as an allegory and had a lot of mise-en-scene.
Black people have played an important role in American history and made great contributions to the development on economy and culture of the U.S. This week watching Kevin Everson’s series short films, I have a deeper understanding of ethnography cinema distinguished from documentary. His film focusing on the subject matter of African American, transfers their ordinary life into a sublimation of nationality. He uses found footage in According To and Something Else to practice its ethnographic interaction between image and audiences.
The film goes through the student political movement, the civil rights movement, social protest, Vietnam protests, the Black Panthers, counter
The videos from this class have portrayed Africans in a variety of ways, from simply victims of catastrophe, to an independent people that are working to improve themselves despite the adversity they face. These portrayals create different pictures of Africa for the viewer and some can create and reinforce a possibly negative stereotype that hurts Africa as a whole. Many times when Africa is portrayed to international audiences, particularly America, it is made to fit into preconceived notions that people have about Africa and Africans. It is in this way that people merely project their desires of what they want Africa to be onto representations of Africa in videos, documentaries, and films about African struggles.
Dominant media produces films using generalized, and distorted images of Africa to create the idea of a dark continent in need colonial help, due to native civilization’s inability to live in a functional society. Mountains of the Moon, follows Richard Burton and John Speke, two explorers in search of the Nile. Set in pre-colonial times, this movie constructs images of Africa, perpetuating African’s inability to live in developed societies, and shows their natural inclination to appease British explorers. The Kitchen Toto, tells the story of Mwangi, who becomes a British officer’s kitchen Toto after his father is killed for opposing the clandestine independence movement. This movie shapes inaccurate images of African independence movements, showing those who are not under colonial rule as threatening, malicious, problematic, and incompetent of leadership. A Good Man in Africa tells the story of a British Diplomat, Morgan Leafy, who lives in Kinjanja, a nation recently freed from British rule. This film portrays Africa’s dependence on neocolonial rule through the Kinjanja’s fait, which rests in the hands of Dr Alex Murray, the man who is in the way of Adekunle’s exploitive building project. These three films represent ho western cultures imagination has evoked stock narratives, creating artificial Africas, in dominant media and films, leading to falsified images expanding from pre-colonialism to twentieth century neocolonialism.
There were three films we saw in class; these three films were made during political and social change in their respective countries. The three films have a similar style and it helped people to cope with this reality. These films represent the political social freedom of speech. First, The Great Dictator, a film with humor, was made at the beginning of World War II when Charlie Chaplin spoke for the first time representing different characters to prove his opposition against Nazism and mocking Hitler. His humoristic film relieves political stress over society. Next, No Regrets For Our Youth, a sentimental film, was made at the end of World War II and represents a new generation with new changes. The principal character projected the new style
While watching The Ink Road there was a lot of new information that I was taking in, about the history and culture of West Africa that I had no knowledge of whatsoever. I was enlightened of all the new characteristics of West Africa that I had not heard about. There seems to be a substantial difference between West Africa and America, between culture, history, and education. West African values are undoubtedly charismatic, and it bewilders me how little have fallen in their footsteps.
Describe Ideology in filmIn todays’ technology driven world, we as a collect whole are more influence by the ideas of the world and its people, in comparison to sister Earths’ past generations. From your not so bright future scholar in a third world country, all the way to a dimwit in a first world country, opinions and idealism is spawned from the environment, and social teachings. Since the birth of cinema, film and ideology has evolved over the last century, but still maintaining the same constant,society. For some of the viewers, the film “Birth of An Nation” made in a time period of dismay, and ignorance, may have been an astringent viewing for them, causing them to chastisethe views of the producer. I felt no such thing towards this viewing, but as insight on the minds of many of the southerners of that time period.
For generations, Hollywood has dominated the global movie scene. In many countries American films capture up to 90 percent of the market (Campbell 201). Cultural studies is in fact the study of the ways in which culture is constructed and organized and the ways in which it evolves and changes over time. More recently, as globalization has started to intensify, and the United States government has been actively promoting free trade agendas and trade on cultural products, which led Hollywood into becoming a world-wide cultural source. As the foreign film market in the US continues to shrink, American distributors play increasingly larger roles as cultural gate-keepers. However, there has been controversies over the way Hollywood portrays other countries, their people, and cultures, especially Hollywood’s portrayal of Africa, Middle East, and Asia. Internet Movie Database suggests that they are roughly 1,367 films that mention the African continent. The problem is not about the mention of the continent, but about how the continent is constantly portrayed. The controversies around media images and themes depicting the way in which the ‘developing’ world is portrayed, have been going on since the mid-1970s (Cohen, 2001, in Manzo, 2006).