African 440 & 405 (Lec 003): Francophone Film

This course, taught in English, is an overview of francophone African cinema, featuring representative films and directors from Senegal, Mali, Chad, Cameroon, Algeria, and Morocco, and spanning from 1966 to 2016. We will study directors from the pioneering African wave (Sembène, Mambéty) and also contemporary artistic voices (Bekolo, Sissako, Saleh etc.). Students will learn about both the history and the aesthetics of francophone African cinema. Thematically, the course is split in three major strands to be explored in depth through film and theoretical readings: the African city and space, aesthetics of image and sound, and the African body.