AFRICAN CINEMA AAAS 102A Th 2:00 PM 4:50 PM Shiffman Humanities Ctr201 SPRING 2017

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1 AFRICAN CINEMA AAAS 102A Th 2:00 PM 4:50 PM Shiffman Humanities Ctr201 SPRING 2017 Department of African and Afro-American Studies Brandeis University MS 092, 415 South Street Waltham, MA Instructor: Salah M. Hassan Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30-4:30PM, OR By Appointment COURSE OBJECTIVES This course explores the foundation and development of African cinema. Students will be introduced to cinema as a visual artistic medium in a non-western context through technical and formal and content analysis. African cinematic genres will be addressed including the "return to the source" of the pre-colonial past, "Social Realist" narrative and critique of postcolonial Africa, reconstruction of colonial history from the colonized perspective, and the documentary in addition to new cinematic waves and experimental ones. This course offers a distinctive lens for examining African cultures and exploring issues of social change, gender, class, tradition, and modernization through African eyes. Thus, historical, cultural, and political issues will be considered in the context of film study. Students will develop critical and analytical skills necessary for assessing visual media. TEXTS: **Diawara, Manthia. African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics. (Munich, Berlin, London, New York: Prestel Publishers and Haus der Kunst, 2010) **Gugler, Josef, African Film. Re-Imagining a Continent. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003). **Thackway, Melissa. Africa Shoots Back. Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003) (This has good additional references, sources and filmography). Shafik, Viola. Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity. (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 1999). Steve Blandford, Barry Keith Grant, Jim Hillier, The Film Studies Dictionary. (London: Arnold, 2001) Shafik, Viola. Popular Egyptian Cinema: Gender, Class and Nation. (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2010). Gönül Dönmez-Colin. The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle East. (London: Wallflower Press, 2007) 1

2 Francoise Pfaff (ed.). Focus on African Films ((Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004). RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON AFRICAN CINEMA: Kenneth W. Harrow, Trash: African Cinema from Below. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013). Alexie Tcheuyap, Postnationalist African Cinema (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2011). Cinematic/Film Terminology/Glossary: The following web links provide useful access to film and cinematic terms: USEFUL SOURCES: Écrans d Afriques/African Screen. ( ) - French and English - to read on or (Good Journal but no longer in print) Armes, Roy. Postcolonial Images. Studies in North African Film. Indiana Univ Press, Armes, Roy: Dictionary of African Filmmakers, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008 Olivier Barlet, African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze, (London: Zed Books, 2001) N. Frank Ukadike, Black African Cinema, University of California Press 1994 N. Frank Ukadike, Questioning African Cinema: Conversations with Filmmakers. (University of Minnesota Press 2002) ALL REQUIRED READINGS OR FILMS ARE ON LATTE AND/OR RESERVE DESK GRADING 10% Journal 25% Introductory paper and critique 25% Class participation (including attendance) 40 % Term Paper COURSE REQUIREMENTS Attendance: Attendance is required at all class meetings. You may miss one class without penalty, but your final grade will be reduced after the second absence. This penalty is in addition to the lower grades received for not handing in the critiques on time. All students should be ready to discuss readings in class on the assigned dates. The organization of the course requires students to be active participants. Class participation 2

3 is required and on specific dates students will be asked to lead class discussion of a film by summarizing the readings and posing analytical questions to the class and raising issues concerning the significance of the films. Journals: Students are required to keep a film journal by taking notes on each film during its screening. The journal will help you to recall critical details from one week to the next for the purposes of discussion. Film Journals should be submitted through Discussion section of the Black Board. Critiques: Please submit one four to six page typed paper for the films discussed within each course units. Make sure to include your name and title at the top of the title page, and the paper must be double-spaced, using 1" margins, and 12-pt Times New Roman font. Use footnotes in a citation manner that conforms to a specific manual of style (MLA, Chicago). It must be submitted on the Monday of the week following the completion of the course unit. Term Paper: Your paper will be based on one of the course films or filmmakers of your choice. Develop a thesis concerning style, genre, cinematography, or critical and analytical issues related race, class, gender, politics, religion, or other social issue as it relates to the film. Draw on literature, other visual culture, historical studies, or films for comparative material. Length: 15 typed pages plus endnotes and a bibliography and double-spaced. As always, grammar, spelling, clarity, and elegance in writing will be considered in grading the paper. IMPORTANT NOTICES: 1. Paper Topics Must be Approved by the Instructor. 2. Proposal for Term Paper Plus a Preliminary Bibliography due March 2, Final Paper Due By May 5, INTRODUCTION: AFRICA AND THE MOVING IMAGE (Jan ) Film Screenings: World of Film: Africa (USA) 1994, 26 minutes African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics: Filmmakers in Conversation (Germany), 2010, 30 minutes. * Salah M. Hassan, Darkest Africa Syndrome and the Idea of Africa; Notes Towards a Global Vision of Africa and its Modernist Practice, in Salah M. Hassan and Cheryl Finely (eds.) Diaspora, Memory, Place: Three Artists/Three Projects, (Prestel Publishers, 2008) pp * Diawara, Manthia. African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics. Chapters 1 and 2. (pp ). Visions of a New African Cinema in Diawara, Manthia. African Film: New Forms of 3

4 Aesthetics and Politics. (pp * Gugler, xii-28, , and * Keyan Tomaselli, "African Cinema: Theoretical Perspectives on Some Unresolved Questions" in Bakari, Imruh and Mbye Cham, eds., African Experiences of Cinema. London: British FiIm Institute, ( ). Zacks, Stephen. The Theoretical Construction of African Cinema. Research in African Literatures 26:3 (Fall 1995). Petty, Shiela. Cities, Subjects and Cites: Sub-Saharan African Cinema and the Reorganization of Knowledge. Afterimage v 19 Summer p AFRICA AND DECOLONIZATION: THE CASE OF ALGERIA (Jan 26-Feb 2) Film Screenings (two films): The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy and Yacef Saadi, Algeria, 1966) 123 min. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Indigènes [Days of Glory] (Rachid Bouchareb, French-Algerian, 2006) 125 min. In French or English. Readings (Battle of Algiers): *Franz Fanon, Franz Fanon, Algeria Unveiled, in Fanon, A Dying Colonialism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979). pp, *Mellen, Joan. An Interview with Gillo Pontecorvo. Film Quarterly 26:1 (Autumn 1972): * Khanna, Ranjana. The Battle of Algiers and The Nouba of the Women of Mont Chenoua Third Text 43 (Summer 1998). * Mellen, Joan. Film Guide to the Battle of Algiers. Indiana University Press, Not on electronic reserve; on course reserve at Africana Library. (Excerpts TBA) O Shaughnessy, Michael. Meaningful Emotions and Emotional Meanings. Metro 156 (2008): Readings (Indigenes): *Frederick Cooper and An Stoller, "Between Metropole and Colony: Rethinking a Research Agenda, in Tensions and Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World (LA: University of California Press, 1997). * Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. p and * Hargreaves, Alec. Indigènes: A Sign of the Times, Research in African Literatures 38:4 (Winter 2007): * O Riley, Michael F. National Identitiy and Unrealized Union in Rachid Bouchareb s Indigènes, French Review: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of French 81:2 (Dec. 2007): AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE AND ITS AFTERMATH: THE SOCIAL REALIST NARRATIVE (Feb 9) Readings (Xala): * Gugler,

5 * Thackway, * Samba Gadjigo, The Problem Is More Mental Than Economic: Ousmane Sembène in Conversation with Samba Gadjigo, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art Fall (27): *Adesokan, Akin. The Significance of Ousmane Sembène. World Literature Today. Jan/Feb Vol. 82, Iss. 1; pg. 37, 4 pages * Gabriel, Teshome. Xala: Cinema of Wax and Gold in Jump Cut: Hollywood, Politics and Counter Culture. Toronto: Between the Lines, ( ) * Mowitt, John. Sembene Ousmane s Xala: Postcoloniality and Foreign Film Languages. Camera Obscura 31 (1993): * Petty, Sheila. Towards a Changing Africa: Women s Roles in the Films of Ousmane Sembene. In A Call to Action. Westport, CT: Praeger, p Landy, Marcia. Political Allegory and Engaged Cinema : Sembene s Xala Cinema Journal 23:3 (Spring 1984). 4. THE COLONIAL/ POSTCOLONIAL EXPERIENCE (Feb 16) Film Screenings (Two films) Lumumba, la mort du prophète [Lumumba, the death of the prophet] 70 min. (Raoul Peck, Andreas Honegger, and Frank Hoffer 1992) In French with English subtitles. Lumumba (Raoul Peck, Haiti, 2001) 115 min. French, Belgian, Haitian, German coproduction. In Lingala and French with English subtitles. * Shillington, Kevin. History of Africa. p * Watson, Julia. Raoul Peck s Lumumba. A Film for our Times. Research in African Literatures 33:2 (Summer 2002): * Taylor, Clyde. Autopsy of Terror. A Conversation with Raoul Peck. Transition 69 (1996): *Diawara, Manthia, The I Narrator in Black Diaspora Documentary. In: Struggles for Representation : African American documentary film and video. Phyllis R. Klotman and Janet K. Cutler (eds.). (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1999); pp: RETURN TO THE SOURCE : HISTORY AND THE POSTCOLONIAL IMAGINATION (March 2) Film Screening (two films): Yeelen (Brightness) (Souleymanne Cissé, Mali, 1987) 105 mins. In Bambara with English Subtitles Sankofa (Haile Gerima, Ethiopia/USA, 1993) 124 mins. English Readings (Yeelen): * Gugler, * Thackway, * MacRae, Suzanne. Yeelen: A Political Fable of the Komo Blacksmith. In Research in 5

6 African Literatures 26:3 (Fall 1995) * Pfaff. Francoise. Twenty Five Black African Filmmakers. Greenwood Press, p * Diawara, Manthia. Souleymane Cisse s Light on Africa. Black Film Review (1988, no. 4). * Ukadike, Nwachukwu Frank. Black African Cinema. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994). Chapter 5 excerpt: Readings (Sankofa): *Cham, Mbye Baboucar. Art and Ideology in the Work of Sembène Ousmane and Haile Gerima." Presence Africaine: Revue Culturelle du Monde Noir/Cultural Review of the Negro World, vol. 129 no pp: *Kande, Sylvie, Look Homeward, Angel: Maroons and Mulattos in Haile Gerima's Sankofa." Research in African Literatures. 29 (2): Summer. *Woolford, Pamela, Filming Slavery: A Conversation with Haile Gerima. Transition: An International Review, vol pp: ALLEGORY AND POSTCOLONIAL AFRICA Film Screenings: Touki Bouki / The Journey of the Hyena (Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal, 1973) 86 min. In Wolof with English subtitles. Bamako (Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali/France, 2006) 118 min. In Bambara and French with English subtitles. Readings (Touki Bouki): * Ukadike, N. Frank and Djibril Diop Mambety, The Hyena s Last Laugh, Transition 78 (1988): * Uraizee, Joya. Subverting the Status Quo in Senegal: Djibril Diop mambety s Hyenas and the Politics of Liberation, Literature/Film Quarterly 34:4 (2006): * Pfaff. Francoise. Twenty Five Black African Filmmakers. Greenwood Press, (On Touki Bouki) Readings (Bamako): * Ismi, Asad. Impoverishing a Continent: The World Bank and the IMF in Africa (ISBN ) July 2004 (online publication) * Ukadike, N. Frank. Calling to Account, Sight Sound 17:2 (2007) 38-39,43. * Jaafar, Ali and Abderrahmane Sissako. Finding our own voices, Sight Sound 17:2 (2007): * Atkinson, Michael. Bamako (May 6, 2008) 7: LEGACY AND IDENTITY: APARTHEID AND POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA (March 2): Film Screenings (Two Films) Mapantsula (Hustler) (Oliver Schmitz and Thomas Mogotlane, South Africa, 1988) 104 6

7 min. In English, Zulu, Sotho, and Afrikaans with English subtitles Tsotsi (Gavin Hood, South Africa, 2005) 115 min. Readings (Mapantsula): * Gugler, * Tomaselli, Keyan. Popular Communication in South Africa: Mapantsula and its Context of Struggle. South African Theatre Journal 5 (1991, no. 1): * Schmitz, Oliver and Thomas Mogotlane. Mapantsula. The Book. Fordsburg, South Africa: COSAW, Not on electronic reserve. * Dandridge-Perry, Cheryl. Mapantsula African Arts 32 (1990): Readings (Tsotsi): *Loren Kruger, Filming the Edgy City: Cinematic Narrative and Urban Form in Post- Apartheid Johannesburg, Research in African Literatures 37:2 (Summer 2006): (read only ). Interview: Writer/Director Gavin Hood Discusses His Film, Tsotsi Interview: David Archibald, Violence and Redemption: An Interview with Gavin Hood Cineaste 31:2 (Spring 2006): 44. 8: THE DOCUMENTARY: COLONIAL REALITIES AND POSTCOLONIAL MEMOR: (March 9): Film Screenings: Indochina: Traces of a Mother (Idrissou Mora-Kpai, Benin, 1973) 86 min. In Wolof with English subtitles. Arlit: Deuxieme Paris (Idrissou Mora-Kpai, Benin/France, 2006) 118 min. In Bambara and French with English subtitles. Readings (Arlit): * Uranium in Niger : * Niger Uranium Forgeries : * Uranium in Niger Mining, : Sheila Petty, Sacred Places and Arlit: Deuxième Paris: Reterritorialization in African Documentary Films Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art (2013) 2013(32): Readings (Indochina): * Childern of the Dust Time Magazine (Monday, May 13, 2002): *Hartley, Ralph, Sleeping with the enemy: an essay on mixed identity in the context of violent conflict Social Identities, Vol. 16, 2, , p. 225 *Nicola Cooper, France in Indochina: Colonial Encounters (London: Berg Publishers, 2001) (pages to be assigned) 7

8 9: NEW FORMS/NEW AESTHETICS: NOLLYWOOD Film Screenings (Two Films) (March 16) Welcome to Nollywood (Jamie Meltzer, 2009) 58 min. English Thunderbolt: Nagun (Tune Kelani, Nigeria, 2000), 110 min, English and Yoruba. *Manthia Diawara, Nollywood in Diawara, Manthia. African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics. Chapters 3. (pp ). *Jonathan Haynes, TK in NYC: An Interview with Tunde Kelani. Postcolonial Text 3.2 (2007). *Jonathan Haynes, What Is to Be Done? Film Studies and Nigerian and Ghanaian Videos. Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution. Eds. Ralph A. Austen and Mahir Saul. Athens: Ohio UP, *Jonathan Haynes, Nollywood. International Encyclopedia of Communication. Ed. Wolfgang Donsbach. Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, Vol. 7: *Onookome Okome, Nollywood and Its Critics, Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution. Eds. Ralph A. Austen and Mahir Saul. Athens: Ohio UP, Jonathan Haynes (ed.). Nigerian Video Films.. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000). Cinema and Social Change in West Africa. By Onookome Okome and Jonathan Haynes. Jonathan Haynes, A Literature Review: Nigerian and Ghanaian videos. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22.1 (2010): Jonathan Haynes, TK in NYC: An Interview with Tunde Kelani. Postcolonial Text 3.2 (2007). 10: NEW FORMS/NEW AESTHETICS: THE NEW AVANTE GARDE (March 23- March 30) Film Screenings: Pumzi (Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya, 2009) 21 min. In English Awaiting for Men (En attendant les homes) Katy Lena N diaye (Senegal/Belgium) 56 min English subtitles Ye Wonz Maibel (Salem Mekuria, Ethiopia), USA, 1996, 1997) 69 min. In English and Amharic with English subtitles. Yaba Badoe, Amina Mama and Salem Mekuria Editorial: African Feminist Engagements with Film In Feminist Africa (16) Special Issue, 16: July 2012, pp. 1-7 Salem Mekuria Representation and Self Representation: My Take In Feminist Africa (16) Special Issue African Feminist Engagements with Film Issue 16: July 2012,

9 * What Is African Cinema (Today)? in Alexie Tcheuyap, Postnationalist African Cinema (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2011). Pp * Beti Ellerson, Women of African on Film Video, and Television (Africa World Press, 2000) * Through African Eyes: Conversations with the Directors (VoluME 2). New York: African Film Festival, New York, 2010) 11: NEW FORMS/NEW AESTHETICS: THE NEW AVANTE GARDE (April 6- April 20) Film Screenings: Jean-Pierre-Bekolo, Les saignantes, 97 min, ( Cameron, 2005) Jean-Pierre-Bekolo, Le Président (The President), 64 min, (Cameron, 2013) *Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Welcome to Applied Fiction, trans. Simon Burt, Journal of Cinema and Media 49, no. 2 (2008): *Matthew Omelsky, Jean-Pierre Bekolo s African Cyborgian Thought Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art (2012) 2012(31): 6-21; Achille Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001) Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, in Sim- ians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), CONCLUDING SESSION (April 27) AFRICAN CINEMA: SELECTED BIBILIOGRAPHY: Armes, Roy. Third World Film Making and the West. Berkeley: University of CA Press, Bakari, Imruh and Mbye Cham. African Experiences of Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana P., Balseiro, Isabel and Ntongela Masilela, eds. To Change Reels. Film and Film Culture in South Africa. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, Barlett, Olivier. African Cinemas. Decolonizing the Gaze. NY: St. Martin s Press, Barrot, Pierre (ed.) Nollywood: The Video Phenomenon in Nigeria. (Oxford: James Currey, and Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 2008 _U Cham, Mbye and Claire Watkins, eds. Black Frames: Critical Perspectives on Black Independent Cinema. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Diawara, Manthia. African Cinema. Politics and Culture. Indiana University Press, Downing, John. Third World Cinema. Film Politics and Aesthetic. Praeger,

10 Downing, John, ed. Film and Politics in the Third World. Brooklyn: Autonomedia, Eke, Maureen, Kenneth Harrow and Emmanuel Yewah, eds. African Images. Recent Studies and Text in Cinema. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Gabriel, Teshome. Third Cinema in the Third World. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, Georgakas, Dan and Lenny Rubenstein. The Cineaste Interviews. On the Art and Politics of Cinema. Chicago: Lakeview Press, Givanni, June, ed. Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema. London: British Film Institute, Gugler, Josef. African Film. Re-Imagining a Continent. Indiana University Press, Harrow, Kenneth, ed. African Cinema. Post-Colonial and Feminst Readings. Africa World Press, Harrow, Kenneth, ed. With Open Eyes. Women and African Cinema. Matatu 19. Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam, Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Cinema Studies. London and NY: Routledge, Malkmus, Lizbeth and Roy Armes. Arab and African Film Making. London, NJ: Zed Book,1991 Mowitt, John. Re-Takes. Postcoloniality and Foreign Film Languages. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Murphy, David. Sembene. Imagining Alternatives in Film and Fiction. Africa World Press, Petty, Sheila, ed. A Call to Action. The Films of Ousmane Sembene. Greenwood, Murphy, David. The Indiscreet Charm of the African Bourgeoisie? Consumerism, Fetishism and Socialism in Xala. Sembene. Trenton: Africa World Press, Murphy, David and Patrick Williams. Postcolonial African Cinema: Ten Directors Manchester University Press, Pfaff, Francoise, ed. Focus on African Films. Indiana University Press, Pfaff. Francoise. Twenty Five Black African Filmmakers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Pfaff, Francoise. The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Pines, Jim and Paul Willeman, eds. Questions of Third Cinema. London: British Film Ins., Russell, Sharon. Guide to African Cinema. Westport: Greenwood Press, Shafik, Viola. Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity. Cairo: The American University Press, Shiri, Keith, ed. Directory of African Film-makers and Films. Westport: Greenwood Press, Tomaselli, Keyan G. The Cinema of Apartheid. NY: Smyrna/Lakeview Press,