Primary Research Ideas

For my Primary Research I want to find out if African films relate to Western audiences without alienating them with language and cultural boundaires. For this, I will need to screen at least two African films to a Western audience, hopefully of different ages and education to get a better overall result. I will then conduct personal interviews with each person as well as a final focus group discussion to gather overall ideas. I will record my findings by hand, and possibly record the interviews.

The two films I will be screening are :

'Tsotsi'
Director: Gavin Hood
Release Date: August 2005
Plot Summary: In Johannesburg, the small time criminal Tsotsi is a teenager without feelings, hardened by his tough life. After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.

'Yaaba'
Director: Idrissa Ouedraogo
Release Date: October 1989
Plot Summary: A small african village. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old woman, Sana. Everybody calls her 'Witch' but Bila himself calls her 'Yaaba' (grandmother). When Bilas cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana's medicine who rescues her.

"The Pan-African Federation of Film-makers"

This extract taken from the book '2nd Edition Advanced Level Media' (Angela Bell, Mark Joyce and Danny Rivers, 1999 Hodders & Stoughton) illustrates "aims" and "general principles" outlined by a body of African film makers.

"The pan-African spirit is widely shared by film-makers and in 1970 a number of them from 33 African countries formed the Pan-African Federation of Film-makers (or FEPACI). This body has political observer status at the OAU and on its inauguration in Carthage FEPACI was committed to the following aims:

• The political, cultural, and economical liberation of Africa
• To fight against the Franco-American monopoly of film distribution and exhibition of Africa
• The encouragement of the creation of national cinemas

FEPACI lost some of its impetus according to Manthia Diawara after its second congress in Algiers in 1975 but was revivified at an international conference held at Niamey, Niger in 1982. The manifesto produced at the Niamey congress established the following general principles.

• The viability of cinema production is tied to the complementary viability of other four main sectors of cinema, namely the exploitation of cinema theatres, importation of films, distribution of films, technical infrastructure and training
• There cannot be any viable cinema without the involvement of African states for the organisation, the support, the stabilisation of cinema and the encouragement and protection of private and public investment in cinema
• It is not possible to have a viable cinema industry on a national level in Africa. The development of national cinema should take into consideration regional and pan-African cooperation by integrating cinema to political and economic ties that already exist between states
• At the present stage of development of audio-visual facilities in the world and particularly Africa, television should be complementary to cinema
• It is possible to finance African film productions from the present revenue from the millions who patronise cinemas in Africa. What is required is a strategy that will ensure that part of this revenue legitimately returns to the production of films. Production should not rely solely on patronage.

The Niamey discussions indicate a more favourable attitude to private entrepreneurial involvement in African cinema than in the past when there was more of a stress on nationalism. Also, there was an appreciation of the necessity for countries to cooperate rather than try to build a film industry on a national basis alone. The manifesto and the discussions at Niamey nevertheless revealed that much work had still to be done. FEPACI continued to play its role but its funds have always been limited and at the sixth congress in Ouagadougou in 1997 FEPACI was still struggling financially despite its standing both within and without Africa. Distinguished film-makers continue to participate but membership is based on the affiliation of national associates and many of these are inactive. As a result an Advisory Commission was set up at the congress to reorganise the Federation."

Fespaco

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) is an important biannual African film festival and is the largest African film festival known.
The most prestigious award given out at the festival is the "Étalon de Yennenga" (Standard of Yennenga), named in reference to the mythical founder of the Mossi empire. The "Étalon de Yennenga" is awarded to the African film that best shows "Africa's realities".

Last Year's award winners are as follows:

20th FESPACO (2007)
First Prize (Étalon de Yenenga): Ezra by Newton Aduaka (Nigeria)
Second Prize: Les Saignantes by Jean Pierre Bekolo (Cameroon)
Third Prize: Daratt (Saison Seche) by Mahamat Saleh Haroun (Chad)
Oumarou Ganda Prize: Barakat! by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria)
Paul Robeson Prize: Le President a-t-il le sida by Arnold Atonin (Haiti)
Best Documentary: Ejido, La loi du profit de Rhalib Jawad (Morocco)
Best Short Film: Menged by Daniel Taye Workou (Ethiopia)
Best Actor: Lofti Abdelli in Making Off (Tunisia)
Best Actress: Adèle Ado & Calmel Dorelia in Les saignantes (Cameroon)
Best Screenplay: Barakat by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria)
Best Cinematography: Daratt (Saison Seche) by Mahamat Saleh Haroun (Chad)
Best Editing: Nouri Bouzid for Making Off (Tunisia)
Best Original Score: Barakat by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria)
Best Sound Editing: L'ombre de Liberty by Imunga Ivanga (Gabon)


'Yaaba' won Best Original Score in the 11th Fespaco in (1989).

Yaaba

Overview
Director:Idrissa Ouedraogo
Writer:Idrissa Ouedraogo
Release Date:6 October 1989 (USA)
Genre:Drama/Family
Plot Summary:The film is set in a small African village. Bila (Noufou Ouédraogo) is a ten year old boy who makes friends with an old woman called Sana (Fatimata Sanga), who is an outcast. Everybody calls her a witch but Bila calls her "Yaaba" instead, meaning "grandmother". Sana's medicine saves Bila's cousin, Nopoko (Roukietou Barry), when she gets ill.

After watching this film with its jumpy and slow narrative draws and anti-climax ending, it was obvious to me about the large differences between African and Western movies. As it is subtitled we are able to understand in short what the characters are saying but I could not help but think I was not getting the full dialogue with being able to speak their native language, 'Moore'.
At first the narrative loosely follows Bila and his cousin Nopoko as they play near their village but slowly more characters are introduced such as Kougri and the sub-plot of her being unfaithful to her drunkard husband (which isn't, unlike most Western sub-plots, less important than the main plot). We are then introduced to the main title plot of Sana, whom the villagers call witch but Bila takes a liking to, naming her 'Yaaba' which means 'grandmother' in Moore. When Bila's cousin Nopoko falls ill with tenenus due to a conflict between the village children involving a knife, Sana claims she knows how to heal her. A 'con-artist' tells her uncle that the 'witch' of the village has stolen Nopoko's soul and must be forced from the village. Bila and the town drunk, Kougri's husband, try to tell the villagers otherwise but Sara is still pushed away.
When Bila brings Sana's friend, an old great healer, to the village, he too is pushed away. Eventually Bila's mother talks to him secretly, telling him to fetch Sara and the medicine. In a short time, Nopoko is better and Sana's banishment is forgotton. Kougri is caught with her lover who is chased from the village with Kougri shouting to her husband after him, "I will never be forced to live with you again". Shortly after this, Bila's mother sends him to take food to Sana only to find she has passed away. Later, we see Bila, Nopoko and her father at the lake telling stories of Sana's mother and father. As a gift, Bila gives Nopoko the keepsake Sana had given him. Nopoko says she'll give it back if Bila can catch her.
The film ends with a long shot that is no less than a beautiful representation of Africa with the two playing children running to the horizen.

If this film was to be made in Hollywood, there would have been many differences despite the obvious Western influence already. Since the film was funded partly by Western finances, non-African directors had some say in the making of the film, which is obvious from the soundtrack. At first, it seems all natural, all sounds from diegetic sources for example, the rumble of village action and the sounds of birds and insects. But soon a soundtrack is introduced but it is very subtle.

I will soon show this film to a group of people from different ages to get feedback on African films.

Western Cinema vs African Cinema

Using a sheet with statements about film texts relating to both Western and African cinema, I attempted to apply each statement to either text. These were my results:

Western Cinema

The camera places the audience amongst the action through the use of POV shooting, lots of shot/reverse shot and lots of CUs.

We are encouraged to identify with a main character through the use of CUs.

Narrative structure is simple and linear – there may be sub plots but they are clearly less important.

It is all about one main character – usually the hero.

Editing is generally fast-paced and speeds up during moments of high drama or tension.

Cross-cutting (parallel montage) is used for plot purposes.

The ‘realism’ of the sequence is preserved in a strict observance of the diegesis. The only storyteller is the camera.

African Cinema

The camera tends to remain an observer of action, staying out in two-shots or even long shots.

We are encouraged to understand the interactions between different characters. Our engagement is sociological rather than psychological.

The narrative is easily separated into plot and sub-plots and the focus may change throughout the film.

Not easy to say that any one character is a hero.

Editing is generally slow paced and not dependant on levels of tension or drama.

Cross-cutting may be used metaphorically to imply contrast.

The diegetic world is frequently mediated by a character who can break out of it and address us directly. A storyteller seems important.

African Cinema

What are the differences between western and African film narratives and cinematic styles? How are these differences perceived by western audiences?

Important film makers

Idrissa Ouedraogo
Souleymane Cissé

Cinema festival FESPACO

Check out old Sight and Sounds for stuff on African Cinema too.

I will give you some reading and some films.

Use Jim Pines Questions of Third Cinema and the notes I give you as a starting point.

Sean