Roundtable
The State of the Art – African Contemporary Cinema in Focus
28th June, 13:30-15:30, Grand Auditorium, Building II
Moderator: Carla Henriques (RTP-RDP Africa)
The purpose of this roundtable is to examine the state of contemporary African cinema through the analysis of motion pictures covering a wide range of countries, eras, genres, and subjects.
A panel of six experts with varied profiles – related to the cinema and/or the academic milieu – will reflect on a number of films, previously selected for their artistic and historical relevance. Each panelist is set to do a fifteen minutes’ presentation. In parallel to the talks, excerpts of films evoking the topics explored by the respective speaker will be displayed on a screen whenever relevant.
This roundtable intends to promote a debate concerning the place and identity of African cinema in a multipolar world. Therefore, the goal is to address comprehensive key issues such as the following: the diversity of narratives; the development of techniques and means of production; budgetary constraints and the experimentalism of some filmmakers; contemporary cinema in the light of the past; the presence and influence of political ideologies; the impact of globalization; the ongoing dialogue with the diaspora as well as with the West; the stereotypes fostered by essencialized depictions of the African continent. It will be discussed whether these elements are present (explicitly or subliminally) or absent from films and what they represent, vis-à-vis the potential of African cinema – not only in the international projection of the continent, but also as a privileged channel focusing on social issues.
Ultimately, this roundtable seeks to create a space for film makers, actors, producers, scholars and researchers to collaboratively explore the current visions of African cinema and add new and unexplored perspectives to the debate.
This roundtable will be in Portuguese and partially broadcasted live on radiostation RDP África.
African Film and Migration. Representations of ‘Africa’ between Continents
Manuela Ribeiro Sanches, University of Lisbon
The invisibility of the cinema that comes from Africa
António Pinto Ribeiro, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Rethinking Jean Rouch’s cinema on Africa
Catarina Alves Costa, New University of Lisbon
How Valdomiro didn’t save Django. Cinema in Africa and Cinema of Africa
Ângelo Torres, Actor and Director