Focus on African Films
Dr. Françoise Pfaff, Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, [here at Howard University, HU] has edited an in-depth analysis of Africa’s newest and least-known art form, Focus on African Films. The book provides cutting-edge perspectives on filmmaking in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and elsewhere.
Dr. Pfaff, an internationally recognized expert on Francophone African cinema, conceived of a new critical collection to present the aspirations and issues expressed in African films, their significance in world culture, and their enrichment of our intercultural heritage. Chapters by four HU colleagues and other scholars were selected to produce this insightful collection of research, termed by reviewers “new and fascinating” and “so original that I expect scholars will be quoting it extensively.”
Cinema by and for Africans has evolved in new directions since its initial conceptualization as a key weapon in post-independence struggles against distortions crafted in Hollywood and Europe, racist ideologies, and the legacies of colonialism and neocolonialism. While didactic films continue to appear, so do new, stylistically innovative documentaries and “documentary fiction,” mythic and metaphorical interpretations, and vibrant art films.
Focus on African Films begins with Dr. Pfaff’s broad overview of cinematic production on and about the continent. In addition to writing a chapter on an HU colleague, the world-renowned Ethiopian director, Professor Haile Gerima (Radio, TV & Film), and a chapter on African cities as cinematic texts, Dr. Pfaff included innovative analyses of crucial topics by:
• Dr. Mbye Cham (African Studies): current tendencies in cinematic views of history;
• Dr. Beti Ellerson (Art): pioneer woman filmmaker, Safi Faye (Senegal);
• Dr. Josephine Woll (Modern Languages): Soviet cinema and Francophone Africa;
• Dr. María Roof (Modern Languages): Latin American and African contacts.
Focus on African Films provides unique and pluralistic perspectives on African filmmaking rather than a reductive assessment of the cinematic output of the continent. Previous books on African cinemas concentrated on historical accounts of the development of filmmaking or specific geographical and even linguistic areas. Focus on African Films offers an original, kaleidoscopic analysis of African films released since the 1950s.
Published by Indiana University Press, the second-largest public university press in the U.S., known for its significant publications in African Studies, Focus on African Films (2004) offers original, up-to-date, richly informative, groundbreaking perspectives for scholars, students, and other readers interested in film, African studies, French and Francophone studies, and cultures in general.
Dr. María Roof
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Howard University

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