[ecrea] 50 Years of Film in Independent Africa Conference, 27-28 November, 2010

> FILMING
> AGAINST THE ODDS 
>
> Indaba on 50 Years of Film in Independent Africa
>
> FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS 
>
> African Media Centre, University of Westminster,
> London, UK / LONDON AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL 
>
> Filming Against the Odds Conference, London, 27-28
> November 2010 
>
> Keynote Speaker: Professor Ferid
> Boughedir 
>
>  Tunisian filmmaker and historian of
> African cinema (his filmography includes Camera d'Afrique - Twenty
> Years of African Cinema (1983); Camera Arabe  (1987);
> Halfaouine - Child of the Terraces (1995); A Summer in
> Goulette (1996); Villa Jasmine (2008)). 
>
> New Abstract Deadline: 15 October
> 2010. Please e-mail your 200-word abstract to Helen Cohen at:
> (journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk) 
>
> Conference Fees: 
>
> Unwaged/Students:
> £50                        
> Waged/Non-Students: £125 
>
> Fees cover registration, conference pack, lunch,
> coffee/tea and wine reception 
>
> Conference partners include the British Academy
> of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and The Africa Channel (on Sky
> TV 268) 
>
> Other confirmed speakers
> include: 
>
> Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, National
> Institute for Cultural Orientation, Nigeria 
>
> Brigitte Rollet, University of London
> Institute in Paris, France 
>
> Daniela Ricci, Université Jean Moulin Lyon3-
> Lyon, France 
>
> Guido Convents, Consultant, President of the
> Belgian African Film Festival, Belgium 
>
> Ifeoma T. Amobi, Department of Mass
> Communication, University of Lagos, Nigeria 
>
> Melissa Thackway, Freelance
> critic/researcher, Paris, France 
>
> Melita Zajc, University of Maribor,
> Ljubljana, Slovenija 
>
> Muhammed Musa, University of Canterbury, New
> Zealand 
>
> Nnamdi John Ejekwumadu, Udongalasi
> Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria 
>
> Nneka Onwusanya, Criminologist, London,
> UK 
>
> Petty Sheila, Humanities Research Institute,
> University of Regina, Canada 
>
> Ramota Koiki, Dept. of Mass Communication,
> University of Lagos, Nigeria 
>
> Ros Gray, Department of Art, Goldsmiths
> College, University of London, UK 
>
> Shaibu Husseini, Arts/Film Journalist, The
> Guardian, Lagos, Nigeria 
>
> Stefanie Dresch, Academy for Film and
> Television Konrad Wolf, Germany 
>
> Theresa I. Amobi, University of Lagos, Lagos,
> Nigeria 
>
> Details of the Call: 
>
> The African Media Centre at the University of
> Westminster is organizing a one-day conference on 50 years of filmmaking
> in independent Africa.  A half a century ago, Sub-Saharan Africa
> welcomed independence with a wave of optimism. A new cinema was born,
> championed by the Senegalese film-maker Ousmane Sembène. This new cinema
> would provide a conduit of _expression_ for voiceless Africans – revealing
> social conditions and sharing stories. Sembène's first short film, Borom
> Sarret, was a watershed. It reached a worldwide audience with a plot
> based on the tale of a poor cart driver whose tragic life mirrored the
> hazards facing many ordinary people. Borom Sarret's issues became
> dominant themes in African cinema. Prior to political independence,
> colonial rule did not allow Africans to make their own films. African
> independence seems to have given the environment needed to produce
> African stories on the screen.  Not only was political independence
> a subject in films, but the environment it created gave an added impetus
> to both independent and institutionally supported film-making in Africa.
> African filmmakers have produced stories that celebrate success and
> failure in their societies. African history, language and etymology are
> evident in the ways in which some filmmakers have sought an independent
> form to help indigenize the medium.  
>
> Today, Nigeria has become the centre of a lucrative home video industry
> known as Nollywood.  According to a recent UN statement, around 900
> titles are released in Nigeria each year and bring revenue of about
> £100m, and Nigeria has surpassed Hollywood to become the world's second
> largest film producer after Bollywood. Movies are made on the cheap and
> copies are exported, sold on the street, or distributed via increasing
> numbers of video clubs. The film-makers have to work fast and around the
> clock in their desperate attempt to fend off the pirates. 
>
> The contemporary African film industry is clearly of
> global proportions. However, the questions that must be asked are: whose
> languages are spoken in African film? What are the patterns of stories
> that have been told so far? What formats do African filmmakers use? What
> themes? How has funding affected what is produced? What are the politics
> of film-making in Africa? Apart from development, education and
> entertainment, has film on the continent advanced the emancipation of
> Africans? What has been the relationship between political independence
> and African film? The conference will include a session with leading
> African filmmakers. Papers may include, but are not necessarily limited
> to, the following: 
>
> -          Precolonial film
> in Africa 
>
> -          Contemporary and
> historical dimensions of film in Africa 
>
> -          Language and
> African film 
>
> -          African languages
> and film in Africa 
>
> -          Global, national,
> local aspects of film in Africa 
>
> -          Screen media
> Africa 
>
> -          Identity politics
> and the media in Africa 
>
> -          Film funding in
> Africa 
>
> -          Educational film
> in Africa 
>
> -          Politics and film
> in Africa 
>
> -          Distributing
> films in Africa 
>
> -          Style and
> aesthetics of African film 
>
> -          History of
> African film 
>
> -          Film audiences in
> Africa 
>
> Please e-mail your 200-word abstract to Helen Cohen
> at:
>
> (journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk) 
>
>  All submissions must include the title of the
> conference, topic, an abstract and should list the author’s full name,
> with contact information and affiliation. The deadline for the submission
> of abstracts is 15 October 2010 and those whose abstracts are accepted
> will be notified by 20 October 2010. 
>
>
> Dr. Winston Mano
> Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI)
> Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
> School of Media, Arts and Design
> University of Westminster
> Harrow Campus
> Watford Road
> Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3TP, UK
> Tel: +44(0)2079115000 ext 4427 
> Fax:+44(0)2079115942

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
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