[ecrea] Independent Film in Africa

> FILMING AGAINST THE ODDS
> Indaba on 50 Years of Film in Independent Africa 
> 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
>  
>  
> This is a call for papers from the African Media Centre at the University
> of Westminster for 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 31 July
> 2010 and those whose abstracts are accepted will be notified by 5 August
> 2010.
> Conference Fees:
> Unwaged/Students:
> £50                        
> Waged/Non-Students: £125
> Fees cover registration, conference pack, lunch, coffee/tea and wine
> reception