?African people should not see themselves ... in
the sensationalist pictures shot for the
consumption of outsiders? ? Obed Nkunzimana, Journal of African Cinemas
Intellect are delighted to announce the launch
of the Journal of African Cinemas at the African
Film in the Digital Era Conference, on Sunday 29
November at the University of Westminster.
The inaugural issue of the Journal of African
Cinemas explores African film from an African
and international perspective. The articles
examine cinemas in countries including Nigeria,
Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda and Congo, exploring a
range of genres and media including videos, documentaries and musicals.
Articles focus on African-made films for African
audiences, while also examining the colonial
legacy of sensationalist representations of
Africa and Africans made by western directors
for western consumption (still a feature of many
western-made films about Africa). In his
article, ?Beyond colonial stereotypes:
reflections on postcolonial cinema in the
African Great Lakes region?, Obed Nkunzimana
refers to the number of films made about the
Rwandan genocide, observing that ?never before
had Rwanda?s five-century-long history attracted
so much attention from European and North
American film-makers?. Nkunzimana argues that
?the problem is that some western funding
agencies, which remain the major and often only
African cinema sponsors, still impose topics
which are to be treated in the films they
financially support?. Nkunzimana expounds the
need for political, financial and technical
support for African cinemas which is not
dependent on western tastes for sensationalist
cinema, and the usual depictions of misery,
poverty and violence, but rather on providing
support for films which show characters and
situations African audiences can identify with.
This first issue also shows that specific genres
are not limited to particular themes. Genres
like popular video or musicals, which are
usually associated with entertainment, may serve
political purposes such as combating corruption
or exposing gender inequality. Other articles
address the difficulties of distribution and
reception of films in Africa, given lack of
funding, the vast number of languages in Africa
and the difficulties of subtitling in areas with
low literacy rates as well as the scarcity of movie theatres.
Explore the first issue FREE online on:
<http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/toc/jac/1/1>http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/toc/jac/1/1
List of contents, issue 1:
Not Another Media Journal?
Authors: Keyan Gray Tomaselli
Renewal in African cinema: genres and aesthetics
Authors: Blandine Stefanson
Globalization and African cinema: distribution
and reception in the anglophone region
Authors: Martin Mhando
Home video films and the democratic imperative in contemporary Nigeria
Authors: Gbemisola Adeoti
Reframing African cinema and democracy: the case of Cameroon
Authors: Jean Olivier Tchouaffe
Beyond colonial stereotypes: reflections on
postcolonial cinema in the African Great Lakes region
Authors: Obed Nkunzimana
The rise of the African musical: postcolonial
disjunction in Karmen Geï and Madame Brouette
Authors: Sheila Petty
Reviews
Authors: Keyan Gray Tomaselli and Jonathan Dockney and Paulo Portugal
The Journal of African Cinemas
Editors: Keyan G. Tomaselli, University of
KwaZulu-Natal and Martin Mhando, Murdoch University
Guest Editor: Blandine Stefanson, University of Adelaide
ISSN: 1754-9221
Online ISSN: 1754-923X
Published by Intellect, November 2009
Subscriptions: £33 (Personal)/ £180
(Institutional)/ £147 (Online only) (2 issues per year)
More information is available on the following link:
<http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=158/>http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=158/
or email: <(nicola /at/ intellectbooks.htm)>(nicola /at/ intellectbooks.com)
For more information on the ?African Film in the
Digital Era? Conference, please see the link below:
<http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-2193>http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-2193
