This is the first introduction of its kind to an important cross-section
of postcolonial African filmmakers from the 1950s to the present.
Building on previous critical work in the field, this volume will bring
together ideas from a range of disciplines - film studies, African
cultural studies, and, in particular, postcolonial studies - in order to
combine the in-depth analysis of individual films and bodies of work by
individual directors with a sustained interrogation of these films in
relation to important theoretical concepts.
Structurally, the book is straightforward, though the aim is to
incorporate diversity and complexity of approach within the overall
simplicity of format. Chapters provide both an overview of the
director's output to date, and the necessary background - personal or
national, cultural or political - to enable readers to achieve a better
understanding of the director's choice of subject matter, aesthetic or
formal strategies, or ideological stance. They also offer a particular
reading of one or more films, in which the authors aim to situate
African cinema in relation to important critical and theoretical
debates.
This book thus constitutes a new departure in African film studies,
recognising the maturity of the field, and the need for complex yet
accessible approaches to it, which move beyond the purely descriptive
while refusing to get bogged down in theoretical jargon. Consequently,
the volume should be of interest not only to specialists but also to the
general reader.
