AFRICAN FRANCOPHONE CINEMA

by

Samba Diop

(Harvard University, USA)

This short encyclopedic book is destined to students who are interested in African Francophone Film and Cinema. The major contemporary African Francophone filmmakers and their films are treated here. The book discusses a certain number of themes as they are featured in African Francophone Cinema: History; Oral Traditions and Literatures; Myth, Religion, and Cosmogony; Gender, Homosexuality, and New Aesthetics; Image and Film Production; and, finally, the themes of Modernity and Post-colonialism. The interface between cinematographic language and image is also studied. This study reflects the vibrancy of the emergent field of African cinema. Furthermore, the reading and interpretation of the aforementioned themes is a testimony toward the commitment of African filmmakers who re-visit and update a certain number of topics as well as explore new avenues, thus pushing further and further outward the boundaries of filmmaking in Africa.

       Thus, many of the films analyzed in this book allow the reader to reflect on some contemporary issues that affect Africans and, at the same time, these films provide for entertainment, fun, and light humor. Thanks to the availability of these films, the African is at once educated and entertained. Beyond Africa, the themes embedded in African Francophone films help toward a better appreciation and understanding of African Cinema.

 Samba Diop received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.   He is Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.   He teaches Francophone Literatures and Cinema.  He has recently authored, L'épopée de Ndiadiane Ndiaye (Paris:  L'Harmattan, 2002).

ISBN 1-931948-19-4

Essential for:

Cinema, African Studies, Francophone Studies, Literature.

$49.95

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