African Cinema and Human Rights
Bloomington: Indiana University Press (2019), x, 314 pp.
Contains illustrations, index
Series: Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora
ISBN 978-0-253-03943-9
"Bringing theory and practice together, 'African Cinema and Human Rights' argues that moving images have a significant role to play in advancing the causes of justice and fairness. The contributors to this volume identify three key ways in which film can achieve these goals: documenting human rights abuses and thereby supporting the claims of victims and goals of truth and reconciliation within larger communities; legitimating, and consequently solidifying, an expanded scope for human rights; and promoting the realization of social and economic rights. Including the voices of African scholars, scholar-filmmakers, African directors Jean-Marie Teno and Gaston Kaboré, and researchers whose work focuses on transnational cinema, this volume explores overall perspectives, and differences of perspective, pertaining to Africa, human rights, and human rights filmmaking alongside specific case studies of individual films and areas of human rights violations." (Publisher description)
Filmmaking on the African continent: on the centrality of human rights thinking / Mette Hjort and Eva Jørholt, 1
PART I: PERSPECTIVES
1 Human rights, Africa, and film: a cautionary tale / Mark Gibney, 17
2 African cinema: perspective correction / Rod Stoneman, 38
3 Africa's gift to the world: an interview with Gaston Kaboré / Rod Stoneman, 60
4 Toward new African languages of protest: African documentary films and human rights / Alessandro Jedlowski, 70
5 Challenging perspectives: an interview with Jean-Marie Teno / Melissa Thackway, 89
6 In defense of human rights filmmaking: a response to the skeptics, based on Kenyan examples / Mette Hjort, 103
7 The Zanzibar International Film Festival and its children panorama: using films to socialize human rights into the educational sector and a wider public sphere / Martin Mhando, 125
PART II: CASES
8 Ousmane Sembène's Moolaadé: peoples' rights vs human rights / Samba Gadjigo, 145
9 Haile Gerima's Harvest: 3000 years in the context of an evolving language of human rights / Ashish Rajadhyaksha, 163
10 Abducted twice? Difret (2015) and Schoolgirl killer (1999) / Tim Bergfelder, 183
11 Timbuktu and "l'homme de haine" / Kenneth Harrow, 201
12 Beats of the Antonov: a counter-narrative of endurance and survival / N. Frank Ukadike, 219
13 Human rights issues in the Nigerian films October 1 and Black November / Osakue Stevenson Omoera, 237
14 The anti-ecstasy of human rights: a foray into queer cinema on "homophobic Africa" / John Erni, 256
15 Refugees from globalization: "clandestine" African migration to Europe in a human (rights) perspective / Eva Jørholt, 280
PART I: PERSPECTIVES
1 Human rights, Africa, and film: a cautionary tale / Mark Gibney, 17
2 African cinema: perspective correction / Rod Stoneman, 38
3 Africa's gift to the world: an interview with Gaston Kaboré / Rod Stoneman, 60
4 Toward new African languages of protest: African documentary films and human rights / Alessandro Jedlowski, 70
5 Challenging perspectives: an interview with Jean-Marie Teno / Melissa Thackway, 89
6 In defense of human rights filmmaking: a response to the skeptics, based on Kenyan examples / Mette Hjort, 103
7 The Zanzibar International Film Festival and its children panorama: using films to socialize human rights into the educational sector and a wider public sphere / Martin Mhando, 125
PART II: CASES
8 Ousmane Sembène's Moolaadé: peoples' rights vs human rights / Samba Gadjigo, 145
9 Haile Gerima's Harvest: 3000 years in the context of an evolving language of human rights / Ashish Rajadhyaksha, 163
10 Abducted twice? Difret (2015) and Schoolgirl killer (1999) / Tim Bergfelder, 183
11 Timbuktu and "l'homme de haine" / Kenneth Harrow, 201
12 Beats of the Antonov: a counter-narrative of endurance and survival / N. Frank Ukadike, 219
13 Human rights issues in the Nigerian films October 1 and Black November / Osakue Stevenson Omoera, 237
14 The anti-ecstasy of human rights: a foray into queer cinema on "homophobic Africa" / John Erni, 256
15 Refugees from globalization: "clandestine" African migration to Europe in a human (rights) perspective / Eva Jørholt, 280
