DHUM 27A41 - Documenting Africa

This course will trace and contextualize the ways in which documentary film – a form traditionally associated with objectivity and capturing of reality – has been used to represent the African continent since the birth of cinema in the late-nineteenth century to the present. Its emergence concomitant with European colonization, the course will look at how documentary cinema played a key role in forging collective imaginations of the continent. First documented in European colonial propaganda and ethnographic films, post-Independence in works by African filmmakers seeking alternative representations of their complex realities, we shall examine how this historical/political context shaped different representations.

Alternating the viewing and analysis of a corpus of African documentaries by the continent’s leading filmmakers and spanning predominant themes, styles, and epochs, we shall adopt a contextual and textual approach to understand the nature and stakes of these works.

Academic expectations

This is a computer-free, phone-free class.

AI policy: AI is not used by the professor for any aspect of this course. AI use by the students is equally prohibited in the class and for all readings and assignments.

Students will be expected to view the entire film corpus, and to read the extracts/articles given on average every fortnight. They will be asked to prepare a class group presentation of one of the films during the semester and to participate in collective discussions of all the works, demonstrating both personal reflection and informed research, and their ability to think about, analyse and contextualize the films clearly. A final essay will be set at the end of the semester, requiring an overall understanding of the films and the representational issues/context discussed throughout.

Written and oral English,