African Cinema : Politics and Culture

"I read this [book] with great pleasure ...it constitutes an extremely important contribution to the field...Manthia Diawara is quite simply the best critic (in any language) currently writing on African cinema"- N Robert Stam. Manthia Diawara provides an insider's account of the history and current status of African cinema. Drawing on history, political science, economics, and cultural studies, he discusses such issues as film production and distribution, and film aesthetics from the colonial period to the present. The book traces the growth of African cinema to the efforts of pioneer filmmakers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Oumarou Ganda, Jean-Ren D brix, Jean Rouch and Ousmane Semb ne, the Pan-African Filmmakers' Organization (FEPACI), and the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO). "African Cinema: Politics and Culture" is a major addition to the proliferating discussions of Eurocentrism, the canon, and multiculturalism.