An Introduction to African Cinema

Stephen Murray discusses 62 sub-Saharan movies made by 46 different directors, beginning with seven by “the father of African cinema,” Ousmane Sembene. Forty-two of the movies date from this millennium and, unlike other books about African films, almost all of those Murray discusses are accessible (on region-1 DVDs).

The coauthor of _Boy Wives and Female Husbands_ is especially interested in female agency as well as intergenerational conflicts between males. Along with oedipal dramas and restive wives, many of the movies address the internecine conflicts (rebellions, tribal wars) that have scarred the continent during the most recent half-century-plus along with portrayals of urban crimes and the devastation of AIDS, especially in South Africa. The languages of the colonists (French and English; movies from former Portuguese colonies either nonexistent or not exported) mixes with local languages in most of the movies Murray discusses