Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers is groundbreaking edited collection which explores the contributions of Francophone African women to the field of documentary filmmaking. Rich in its scope and critical vision it constitutes a timely contribution to cutting-edge scholarly debates on African cinemas. Featuring 10 chapters from prominent film scholars, it explores the distinctive documentary work and contributions of Francophone African women filmmakers since the 1960s. It focuses documentaries by North African and Sub-Saharan women filmmakers, including the pioneering work of Safi Faye in Kaddu Beykat, Rama Thiaw's The Revolution Will Not be Televised, Katy Lena Ndiaye's Le Cercle des noyes and En attendant les hommes, Dalila Ennadre's Fama: Heroism Without Glory and Leila Kitani's Nos lieux interdits. Shunned from costly fictional- 35mm-filmmaking, Francophone African Women Documentary Filmmakers examines how these women engaged and experimented with documentary filmmaking in personal, evocative ways that countered the officially sanctioned, nationalist practice of show and teach/promote.

"Filmmakers in sub-Saharan Francophone Africa have been using cinema since independence in the Sixties to challenge existing Western stereotypes of the continent. The author shows how directors working in a postcolonial context that has inevitably influence film agendas and styles have produced a range of alternative, challenging representations"--Page 4 of cover.

This study focuses on the role of women in African cinema - in terms of female directors working in the African film industries as well as the representation of women in African film. My research specifically focuses on francophone West African and lusophone and anglophone Southern African cinemas (in particular post-apartheid South African cinema). This research is necessary and significant because African women are underrepresented in theoretical work as well as in the practice of African cinema. The small corpus of existing theoretical and critical studies on the work of female African filmmakers clearly shows that African women succeed in producing films against tremendous odds. The emergence of female directors in Africa is an important but neglected trend which requires more dedicated research. The pioneering research of African-American film scholar Beti Ellerson is exemplary in this regard, as she has, since the early 2000s, initiated a new field of academic study entitled African Women Cinema Studies. My own research is situated within this emerging field and aims to make a contribution to it. The absence of women in public societal spheres is often regarded as an indicator of areas where societies need to change. In the same sense the socio-political and cultural advancements of women are indicators of how societies have progressed towards improved living conditions for all. Because the African woman can be viewed as doubly oppressed, firstly by Black patriarchal culture and secondly by Western colonising forces, it is essential that the liberation of African women includes an opportunity for women to verbalise and demonstrate their own vision of women's roles for the future. The study analyses a large corpus of films through exploring notions of nationalism and post/neo-colonialism in African societies; issues related to the female body such as health, beauty and sexuality; female identity, emancipation and African feminism in the past and present; the significance of traditional cultural practices versus the consequences and effects of modernity; and the interplay between the individual and the community in urban as well as rural African societies. Female filmmakers in Africa are increasingly claiming the right to represent these issues in their own ways and to tell their own stories. The methods they choose to do this and the products of their labours are the focus of this study. Ultimately, the study attempts to formulate more complex models for the analysis of African women's filmmaking practices, in tracing the plurality of a female aesthetics and the multiplicity of thematic approaches in African women's filmmaking.

"This short encyclopedic book is destined to students who are interested in African Francophone Film and Cinema. The major contemporary African Francophone filmmakers and their films are treated her. The book discusses a certain number of themes as they are featured in African Francophone Cinema. The interface between cinematographic language and image is also studied. This study reflects the vibrancy of the emergent field of African cinema. Furthermore, the reading and interpretation of the aforementioned themes is a testimony toward the commitment of African filmmakers who re-visit and update a certain number of topics as well as explore new avenues, thus pushing further and further outward the boundaries of filmmaking in Africa." "Thus, many of the films analyzed in this book allow the reader to reflect on some contemporary issues that affect Africans and, at the same time, these films provide for entertainment, fun, and light humor. Thanks to the availability of these films, the African is at once educated and entertained. Beyond Africa, the themes embedded in African Francophone films help toward a letter appreciation and understanding of African Cinema."--BOOK JACKET.

Bibliografie : p. 193-218 Survey of some projects by female African filmmakers from different countries ; the problematic encounter between Western feminism and African feminist filmmaking practice; the representation of women in African film.

Whilst it is not possible to generalise about the role of African women in cinema, there is, nonetheless, evidence that a growing number of women from all parts of the continent are becoming engaged in the various mediums of film, video and television. This book looks at the diverse experiences of both female film pioneers and women film students; through a series of interviews the author discovers what motivated these women to take up film and discusses both the creative aspects of their work and their broader political concerns.

These essays speak directly and compellingly to contemporary issues in African cinema. They address key aspects of postcolonialism and feminism-the two major topics of interest in current criticism. Issues of spectatorship, national identity, ethnography, patriarchy, women's roles, and the creation of key film industries-issues that animate the discussion of film today, are central to this volume. Although there were filmmaking practices in Africa that date back to the colonial period, the films generally viewed and discussed here by students and critics of African film, those directed by Africans, and those made after independence in the early 1960s. The essays on the formation of three principal national film industries-those of Nigeria, Senegal and the lusophone countries-best exemplify the emergence of African cinema when viewed from the optic of language or nation. In addition, studies of genre, patriarchal structures, spectatorship, and representation, are central to the essays on women's films from Algeria, West Africa, and the Sahel. Stephen Zack's study of Reassemblage offers a brilliant meditation on difference, anthropology and Trinh's positioning in her seminal work. Postcolonial theory is employed and examined in Jonathan Haynes's study of one of Africa's most innovative filmmakers, Jean-Pierre Bekolo. The grounding of a new approach to cinematic art in a specifically African aesthetic is the subject of a study on orality in African cinema by Keyan Tomaselli, Arnold Shepperson and Maureen Eke. This is complemented by the studies of individual films, such as Wend Kunni, Yeelen, and Sankofa, films that have had a strong impact on how we think of the African-centeredaesthetic and vision of cinema, of history, of tradition. Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol's bibliographic essay provides invaluable information on sources dealing with African women directors.

The book is a comparative analysis of recent films by African male and female filmmakers and literary works by female African authors from Senegal, Mali, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo and Burkina Faso. The films are Finzan (Cheikh Oumar Sissoko, 1990), Women with Open Eyes (Anne-Laure Folly, 1994), and Faces of Women (Desire Ecare, 1985). In addition, the manuscript includes the study of Women are Different (Flora Nwapa, 1986), Double Yoke (Buchi Emecheta, 1983) and So Long a Letter (Mariama Ba, 1980). Curry analyzes the homogeneous themes such as oppression, sabotage, cultural alienation, exploitation, sexual bargaining and the changing dynamics of sexual relationships that appear through these productions. She concludes that African women continue to undergo a metamorphosis. This transformation is the result of a blend of traditionally African and European influences.Modernist terms such as â oefeminismâ and â oewomanismâ intended to capture the emerging African women as subjects and not objects of study, are avoided. In so doing, a theoretical approach is used, based on the authorâ (TM)s own experiences in West Africa. Then, building from that premise, Curry analyzes the novels and films within this context to either prove or disprove her theories. Enthusiasts without past experiences in the area of African literature and African films, and also students and scholars in African studies, specifically in comparative literature, anthropology, womenâ (TM)s studies, sociology, African history, film studies and social studies, will all find this book of great interest. In raising the issues that West African women face, this book, as the title suggests, aims to awaken other African women and indeed a western readership to the fast changing lives of women in Africa. Georgina Holmes in African Research and Documentation No. 102, 2007

Women in African Cinema: Beyond the Body Politic showcases the very prolific but often marginalised presence of women in African cinema, both on the screen and behind the camera. This book provides the first in-depth and sustained examination of women in African cinema. Films by women from different geographical regions are discussed in case studies that are framed by feminist theoretical and historical themes, and seen through an anti-colonial, philosophical, political and socio-cultural cinematic lens. A historical and theoretical introduction provides the context for thematic chapters exploring topics ranging from female identities, female friendships, women in revolutionary cinema, motherhood and daughterhood, women’s bodies, sexuality, and spirituality. Each chapter serves up a theoretical-historical discussion of the chosen theme, followed by two in-depth case studies that provide contextual and transnational readings of the films as well as outlining production, distribution and exhibition contexts. This book contributes to the feminist anti-racist revision of the canon by placing African women filmmakers squarely at the centre of African film culture. Demonstrating the depth and diversity of the feminine or female aesthetic in African cinema, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of African cinema, media studies and African studies.