Focus on African Films

<p>Emphasizing post-independent films released since the 1950s and the burgeoning commercial film production of the last decade Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on filmmaking throughout Africa. As a whole the collection highlights the distinct thematic stylistic and socioeconomic circumstances of African filmmaking. Individual essays show how conditions in Africa have generated a broad range of views and techniques from the stylistically innovative documentaries of Jean-Marie Teno and Abderrahmane Sissako and the documentary fiction of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun to the vibrant art films of Jean-Pierre Bekolo and the new films from South Africa. Contributors also outline the direction of increasingly popular less didactic sub-Saharan filmmaking in films such as Daniel Kamwa's Pousse-Pousse Ngangura Mweze's La vie est belle and Imungu Ivanga's Dôlé. Up-to-date and richly informative Focus on African Films will be essential reading for students and scholars of African film.<br /><br />Contributors are Françoise Balogun Brenda F. Berrian Robert Cancel Mbye Cham Madeleine Cottenet-Hage Beti Ellerson Samba Gadjigo Josef Gugler Kenneth W. Harrow Françoise Pfaff María Roof N. Frank Ukadike Valerie Wheat and Josephine Woll.</p>