Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film - Softcover

Thackway, Melissa

3.82

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780253216427: Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253216427 ISBN 13: 9780253216427

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2004

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Filmmakers in sub-Saharan francophone Africa have been using cinema since independence in the 1960s to challenge existing Western stereotypes of the continent.

In Africa Shoots Back, Melissa Thackway illustrates how directors working in a postcolonial context have produced these alternative depictions of African identity. She shows how memory and history have become central themes in African films and how local cultural forms have been integrated into the film medium. Interviews with eight African filmmakers enlarge Thackway’s account of the new cinematic codes and previously silenced voices given life in African film.

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About the Author:

Melissa Thackway has a Ph.D. from the University of Bath and has published numerous articles on francophone West African film. Based in Paris, she works as a freelance researcher, translator, and documentary filmmaker.

Review:

Thackway's text is an excellent source in every regard - as an introduction to the subject, as a reference for serious scholars, and as an assigned text in an undergraduate or graduate course. - Patrick Day in AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY ...an incredibly well-researched and authoritatively validated text on some of the most memorable films that have come out of Africa... along with appropriate illustrations and very well researched material this book will take long to be eclipsed as it further proves that there are many cinemas to be found in the continent and the Francophone is only one. - Martin Mhando in ARAS Australia ...contains an extended discussion of the position of women in the films from Francophone Africa. A few women filmmakers have gained wide recognition. Most of their films are documentaries or semidocumentaries and it is striking how most male directors pursue a similar progressive agenda in their feature films. As Thackway concludes, these films by women or about women offer a radically new perspective on their lives and concerns. ...They will give fresh impetus to the study and teaching of African film and may well lead the way toward a wider appreciation of four decades of African filmmaking. - Joseph Gugler in AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW The main strengths of this volume lie in the specific focus on francophone African films, and the author's account of newer films which updates the current published literature. As an addition to the growing body of literature on African film, its accessibility should make it useful to students and lecturers as part of a broader discussion forum. - Frances Harding in MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES

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