RTVF 4415
Spring 2008
Cultural and Community (mis)representation in African Documentary Films
RTVP 264
Wednesday 1- 3.50 p.m.

Professor: D. Ndirangu Wachanga, PhD
Phone/Office­­­: 940-369-8886/GAB 550 J
E-ddress: wn0003@unt.edu
Blog: wachanga.blogspot.com
untrtvf4415.blogspot.com/

Course ­­description - (with thanks to Dr. Lambiase)

Documentary films and movies are often charged with misrepresentation or with generating misleading cultural representation by the use of stereotypes. Yet, documentary film, like mass media depends on these stereotypes to be efficient in communicating to large and diverse audiences. These challenges are the concerns of this course. We will use case studies of selected African documentary films to examine how documentary films use stereotypes in their portrayal of the African community and its cultures. We will use various readings as tools to analyze cultural and community portrayal and stereotyping of Africa in the selected documentary films.

Stereotyping is not new. African storytellers, for instance, have long used a kind of shorthand when they refer to the lion, elephant, hyena and hare in their stories. Sometimes, these characterizations may be justifiable ways to do cultural work. However, stereotypes have increasingly become a languid way of (mis)representation that may do damage in subtle ways to audience perceptions and beliefs.

Walter Lippmann (1912) has noted that the “subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We’re told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them.” Seeing through stereotypes subjects us to partial truths. Of more concern is the absence of any representations of some groups (a kind of visual annihilation); but even with multiple representations, some groups are narrowly portrayed, so multiplicity doesn’t necessarily lead to diversity.

This course seeks to engage students in scholarly pursuits of the pattern of African cultural portrayal in documentary film and the history of these patterns. Also, the course seeks to examine how these patterns have become part of documentary film structures and the people who work within these structures. To meet these challenges, students will critically appraise documentary films through semiotic and the analysis of images and discourse.

Texts
This class does not have a required textbook. You will create a blog through www.blogger.com where you will post your discussions from class readings. Reading materials will be provided in class. You will, however, be required to make copies of necessary course and presentation materials for your colleagues.

Sample Readings

1. Diawara, M. (1989). “Oral Literature and African Film” Narratology in Wend Kuuni, in Questions of Third Cinema, Pines & Willemen (Eds).
2. Fiske, J. (1996). “The Codes of Television” in Media Studies, Marris & Thornham (Eds).
3. Hall, S. (2000). “Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation” in Film and Theory: An Anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller (Eds).
4. Kierkegaard, A. (2001) “Questioning the origins of the negative images of Africa in Medieval Europe.” In Encounter Images, Palmberg, M. (Ed).
5. Palmberg, M (2001). Encounter Images: In the meeting between Africa and Europe
6. Rouch, J. (2003). “The Situation and Tendencies of the Cinema in Africa” in Cine-ethnography, Steven Feld (Ed).
7. Ukadike, N (1994). “Western Image of Africa” in Black Africa Cinema

PS. Other readings will be provided in course of the semester.

Goals

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the African culture and its (mis)representation in documentary film
2. Trace structures that create or enforce African stereotypes
   
3. Develop skills to critique documentary film as a representation of culture and community
4. Develop skills to critique images, language and sound, and how they convey messages of cultural identity or lack of it
5. Examine the view of Africa by the “other,” and cultural interpretation by the “other” in documentary film
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of groups in a global society in relation to documentary film
7. Think creatively, critically and independently
8. Write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communication professions, audiences and documentary critics

Evaluation

Two research projects 40%
Presentation 15%
Blog 10%
Participation 5%
Final Project 30%

Grading of these assignments will be based on a sophisticated analysis of prior classroom discussion and assigned readings, on thorough research, and on skillful use of language and exhibition of a critical faculty. Late assignments will NOT be accepted. Professional standards will be modeled and upheld for presentations and written assignments.

Office hours

I will be in my office 11 to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, and just before and after our class. Other office hours are available by appointment.

Attendance
One absence in the course is the limit without penalty toward your final grade, unless you have communicated with me from the beginning about an extraordinary problem. Coming to class late or leaving early may constitute an absence for that day.

Accommodation

If a student requires special accommodations, s/he must contact the instructor and the Office of the Disability Accommodation. I am happy to work with any special needs you may have.

Academic Honesty

Any form of cheating is prohibited by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film code of ethics. When you submit work for this class, that is the same as making a statement that you have produced the work yourself, in its entirety. Plagiarism, copyright infringement, and similar uses of other people’s work are unacceptable. Plagiarism in a nutshell is using other people’s written words as your own. Some people consider the use of 7-10 words in a row, copied from another source, as a plagiarism. Be sure to include citations when using other people’s writing, because plagiarism is a serious offense in any discipline. It’s a firing offense in the professional world. In this department, students face a range of penalties for plagiarism (depending on the importance of the assignment): grade “F” on a minor assignment; a request that the student drop the class; withdrawal of the student from the class, initiated by the instructor; a referral to the UNT Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities; a notation on the student’s transcript; and expulsion from the university. A combination of the penalties may also be applied.

Syllabus

Week 1, Jan. 16: Course introduction, deadlines; conversations guidelines, blogging instructions

Week 2, Jan. 23: Lecture - (De) colonizing the gaze: Stereotypes; a way of thinking and self-perception, colonial projections and African responses.

Week 3, Jan 30: Film and discussion – “Rouch in Reverse” by Manthia Diawara

Week 4, Feb 6: Africa and the cinema; media in Black Africa before the arrival of the cinema, Western images of Africa: Geneology of an ideological formulation

Film and discussion - “An Ox for a Baby”

Week 5, Feb 13: Research day: Find a documentary film and attempt to establish patterns of portrayal of people and cultures. Are stereotypes included? How did you establish them? Of what value are these depictions? What value, if any, do they serve? By placing the film within its production context, do the stereotypes reveal a representation of any particular era/period?

Ps. You will write a three-page, double-spaced report of your own findings (Due Feb. 20). You will make a brief presentation in class about your findings. We will discuss about the presentation schedule in class.

Week 6, Feb. 20: Film Day; The Gods Must Be Crazy. Discussion; Report due

Week 7, Feb 26: Lecture: Decolonized thought, Africa betrayed, the mirror-space, struggle with one self, oral tradition and documentary representation, impact of modernity.

Week 8, Mar 5: Guest speaker: Prof. Brian O’Connor

Film – “No Place to go”

Week 9, Mar 12: Guest Speaker- Prof. Jacque Lambiase

Lecture: Culture and film of politics of liberation in Africa; – Cultural portrayal and stereotyping

Week 10, Mar 19: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASSES

Week 11, Mar 29: Film and discussion, “The Mother’s house,” 2nd assignment due

Week 12, Apr 2: Guest Speaker: Prof Brian O’Connor; Film - “In Reserve”

Week 13, Apr 9: Presentations

Week 14, Apr 16: Presentations

Week 15, Apr 23: Guest Speaker. Prof. Mitch Land

Film and discussion, “Of Fatwas and Beauty Queen.”

Week 16, Apr 30: Semester overview Contours of emerging trends, the centrality of culture in documentary films about Africa, The future of black Africa’s cinematic practices; Discussion.

Week 17, May 7: Final project due