Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T18:42:41.264Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

African Films in the Classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Josef Gugler
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

A wealth of excellent films from Africa is readily available for classroom use, even if much of Anglophone Africa remains poorly represented. African films can serve to challenge students' assumptions and to foster a critical examination of Western films set in Africa. Extending the scope of conventional “African” courses to North Africa adds a substantial body of notable productions, some of which address current concerns such as Islamic fundamentalism. African films have to be contextualized; even when they are examined as works of art and as examples of world cinema, full appreciation requires that they be considered in their historical and cultural contexts. When films are used to introduce students to Africa, critical examination is imperative—audiences that have little factual information about Africa all too readily assume that fiction and fact coincide.

Résumé:

Résumé:

On peut noter qu'il y a pléthore d'excellents films africains disponibles pour les études en classe, même si le cinéma de l'Afrique anglophone est encore très peu représenté. Les films africains peuvent servir à mettre en question les préjugés des étudiants et à encourager tin examen critique des films occidentaux utilisant un cadre africain. Pour les cours sur l'Afrique, l'inclusion de l'Afrique du Nord ajoute un nombre important de productions notables, dont certaines abordent des sujets d'actualité tel le fondamentalisme islamique. Les films africains doivent être situés dans leur contexte; même lorsqu'ils sont présentéd strictement en tant qu'œuvres artistiques, une appréciation véritable demande qu'ils soient examinés dans leur contexte historique et culturel. Pour les étudiants introduits à l'Afrique par le moyen du cinéma, il est impératif de les diriger vers une analyse critique—un public qui a peu d'information sur l'Afrique prend trop facilement la fiction pour la réalité.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , December 2010 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armes, Roy. 2008a. Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Armes, Roy. 2008b. “The Filmmaker and the State in the Maghreb and Beyond.”Google Scholar
Diawara, Manthia. 1992. African Cinema: Politics and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Dovey, Lindiwe. 2009. African Film and Literature: Adapting Violence to the Screen. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gugler, Josef. 2003. African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gugler, Josef. 2004. “Fiction, Fact, and the Critic's Responsibility: Camp the Thiaroye, Yaaba, and The Gods Must Be Crazy ” In Focus on African Films, edited by Pfaff, Françoise, 69–85. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Haynes, Jonathan. 2008. “The Meteoric Rise of Commercial Video.”Google Scholar
Haynes, Jonathan. 2010. “A Literature Review: Nigerian and Ghanian Videos.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 22 (1): 105–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstone, Robert A. 1995. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Saul, Mahir, and Austen, Ralph A., eds. 2010. Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and: the Nollywood Video Revolution. Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Tarr, Carrie. 2005. Reframing Difference: Beur and Banlieu Filmmaking in France. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Thackway, Melissa. 2003. Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Suh-Saharan Francophone Film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank. 1994. Black African Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank. 2003. “Video Booms and the Manifestations of “First” Cinema in Anglophone Africa.” In Rethinking Third Cinema, edited by Guneratne, Anthony R., 126–43. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar