What exactly do we mean when we talk of African documentary film? Is there a canon, an authority that can help us define it as a discipline, profession and its scholars, in other words, which people and ideas belong to it as a genre and which do not?
Is African documentary film about Africa even when it is produced by a non-African? What about an African producing a documentary film about a non-African society? What if a documentary film is produced by a non-African, is about Africa, but with the producer as the narrator? We may also think of a documentary film about Africa that uses a non-African language.Do such films qualify as African?
Class,let us address these questions before our next meeting.
Dr. Wachanga
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2 comments:
I think the answer to this question really depends on who the person answering it is. To me an African documentary is one that is produced by an African production company, whether it is about people in Africa or if an African production company has traveled to a foreign country to make a documentary, it is still a African documentary. The same could be said of American filmmakers doing a documentary over American's in the US, or over another culture in another country. Either way it is still an American documentary.
I sincerely believe that an African documentary is one produced by people from the continent.This is because most Africans would speak from the continent's context ,experiences and viewpoint as opposed to docus produced by foreigners who consciously or not do not present Africa without "badmouthing" it.Significantly,most docus presenting Africa have been content to portray deep-seated prejudices thst overflow with stereotypes.
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