Archive for September 2010

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

Thu Sep 30 07:47:15 GMT 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
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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