“Illuminates the enduring importance of political and economic dynamics not yet fully explored in the study of African cinema.” —Africa Cinema and Development in West Africa shows how the film industry in Francophone West African countries played an important role in executing strategies of nation building during the transition from French rule to the early postcolonial period. James E. Genova sees the construction of African identities and economic development as the major themes in the political literature and cultural production of the time. Focusing on film both as industry and aesthetic genre, he demonstrates its unique place in economic development and provides a comprehensive history of filmmaking in the region during the transition from colonies to sovereign states.

The paper examines the struggle for decolonization in West Africa through the critical lense of the cinema industrial complex. One of the pioneers of African cinema and also a leading anti-colonial cultural activist Paulin Soumanou Vieyra insisted that film should be regarded as a crucial terrain in the fight to end colonial rule as well as a central vehicle in the post-colonial economic and cultural regeneration of Africa's societies. He highlighted the cinema's dual nature as art and industry as providing a unique mix of elements that could be utilized to achieve full sovereignty from foreign rule as well as a pathway for development that was not resource-dependent. Drawn from my forthcoming book of the same title (Indiana, 2013), the paper argues that the representational and materialist dimensions to the cinema industrial complex constituted important modalities of colonial rule that were contested by agents like Vieyra, Ousmane Sembene, Med Hondo, and others in the transition from imperial control to political sovereignty. I argue that this study illuminates some of the possibilities inherent within the project of using film as a means of decolonization while also revealing important structural constraints that limited the potential for Africa's post-colonial cultural and economic development.

This research investigates the development of digital video filmmaking in West Africa using Ghana and Burkina Faso as case studies within the context of new technologies. The key research questions that guided the study were how do the economic, social and political contexts of video filmmaking affect the development of a digital video film industry in Ghana and Burkina Faso? and how have the perceptions of digital technologies (held by filmmakers and other stakeholders) impacted upon the development of digital video film making in West Africa? Using field interviews with stakeholders in the video film industry in Ghana and Burkina Faso, as well as with the West African diaspora community in the UK, document research, textual references, and personal observation, the research discusses the challenges of new digital and video technologies, and their implications for the development of the video film industry. The research establishes that video and digital technologies are offering many people the opportunity to make films. There is however, a plethora of new digital technologies that enable the work of video film producers, which require closer examination. The research suggests that the impact of the digital revolution has been limited, and a number of factors account for this. The study offers recommendations that might contribute to discussions on finding solutions to the development of a professional, regulatory and practical video filmmaking environment. This would lead to the formulation of policies that impact positively on filmmaking in the region, and consequently increase the capacity of local productions to compete on the international film scene.

Many studies focus on film in Africa. Few, however, study cinema as a leisure activity: one that has influenced several generations and opened up spaces to dream, discuss or contest. Movie theatres offered a break from the daily routine, as places of escape and of education. Cinema was also potentially subversive, offering an alternative to colonial discourse. Tropical Dream Palaces seeks to trace this history in a West African context: of broadening horizons on the one hand, and of censorship and control on the other. It fills a historiographic void, following cinema's arrival in the region in the early twentieth century up until the Independence era, and also looking further afield to Central Africa and its different models. Goerg addresses questions of film distribution in colonial times; of screening venues, their implantation, spread and different categories; while also focusing on audiences, their gender or age; the acquisition of a film culture; and the impact of screening foreign images. Her book draws on extremely varied sources to paint a broad picture of this cinematographic landscape: archives, the accounts of African and European spectators or administrators, novels, autobiographies, the local press, interviews and iconography.

New African Cinema examines the pressing social, cultural, economic, and historical issues explored by African filmmakers from the early post-colonial years into the new millennium. Offering an overview of the development of postcolonial African cinema since the 1960s, Valérie K. Orlando highlights the variations in content and themes that reflect the socio-cultural and political environments of filmmakers and the cultures they depict in their films. Orlando illuminates the diverse themes evident in the works of filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembène’s Ceddo (Senegal, 1977), Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga (Angola, 1972), Assia Djebar’s La Nouba des femmes de Mont Chenoua (The Circle of women of Mount Chenoua, Algeria, 1978), Zézé Gamboa’s The Hero (Angola, 2004) and Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu (Mauritania, 2014), among others. Orlando also considers the influence of major African film schools and their traditions, as well as European and American influences on the marketing and distribution of African film. For those familiar with the polemics of African film, or new to them, Orlando offers a cogent analytical approach that is engaging.

Many studies focus on film in Africa. Few, however, study cinema as a leisure activity: one that has influenced several generations and opened up spaces to dream, discuss or contest. Movie theatres offered a break from the daily routine, as places of escape and of education. Cinema was also potentially subversive, offering an alternative to colonial discourse. Tropical Dream Palaces seeks to trace this history in a West African context: of broadening horizons on the one hand, and of censorship and control on the other. It fills a historiographic void, following cinema's arrival in the region in the early twentieth century up until the Independence era, and also looking further afield to Central Africa and its different models. Goerg addresses questions of film distribution in colonial times; of screening venues, their implantation, spread and different categories; while also focusing on audiences, their gender or age; the acquisition of a film culture; and the impact of screening foreign images. Her book draws on extremely varied sources to paint a broad picture of this cinematographic landscape: archives, the accounts of African and European spectators or administrators, novels, autobiographies, the local press, interviews and iconography.