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The Emerging African Cinema: A Quest for Cultural Identity
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14967 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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Date : |
9 / 1988 |
2,943 Words |
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David Howard
David Howard writes on the arts and lives in Washington, D.C. |
During the nearly three decades since they won independence from European colonial domination, the forty-odd nations of Africa have struggled to establish and maintain their unique cultural identity. Among the less well-known forms of this struggle has been the efforts to develop a viable indigenous film industry.
One might well ask why something as seemingly marginal as a film industry should be encouraged in the face of the continent's far more immediate problems of poverty, famine, and internecine warfare. Evocative films, however, by and about the peoples of these developing nations, can tell the rest of the world much of what it doesn't know about this basically terra incognita. The existence of a healthy and uniquely African cinema can moreover serve as a source of great national pride.
Filmfest DC
Filmfest DC 1988, a 100-plus film festival in Washington in April, sought to fill this gap in Western knowledge by presenting twelve feature-length and seven short films made by Africans in Africa, and by holding a pair of symposia at Howard University and the Smithsonian Institution, excerpts of which follow.
It should be understood at the outset that prior to 1960, much of what Americans knew of Africa came from visits to zoos and natural history museums. The very name Africa conjured up images of Johnny Weissmuller playing Tarzan, or Clyde "Bring 'em Back Alive" Beatty. Even such popular films as John Huston's classic The African Queen dealt principally with white people, not
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