Documentary objectives : filming Africa from colonialism to independence /

For over a century, filmmakers have been shooting documentaries in west and central Africa, a region that included the colonies of French West and equatorial Africa and now encompasses fourteen nations and nearly 200 million people. Documentary Objectives offers a rich history of these films, until...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gabara, Rachel (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2026].
Subjects:

MARC

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245 1 0 |a Documentary objectives :  |b filming Africa from colonialism to independence /  |c Rachel Gabara. 
264 1 |a Bloomington :  |b Indiana University Press,  |c [2026]. 
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300 |a viii, 340 pages :  |b illustrations ;  |c 24 cm. 
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504 |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-319) and index. 
505 0 |g Part 1:  |t French Colonial Documentary, 1906-1960 --  |g 1.  |t Conquest: Actualities to Propaganda --  |g 2.  |t Adventure: Expeditions and the Grand Documentaire --  |g 3.  |t Research: Ethnographic Filmmaking --  |g Part 2:  |t West and Central African Documentary, 1960-2023 --  |g 4.  |t Independence: Renewing Nonfiction --  |g 5.  |t Expansion: Ethnography Remade --  |g 6.  |t Dialogue: Introspection and Interaction. 
520 |a For over a century, filmmakers have been shooting documentaries in west and central Africa, a region that included the colonies of French West and equatorial Africa and now encompasses fourteen nations and nearly 200 million people. Documentary Objectives offers a rich history of these films, until now largely ignored by scholars. Author Rachel Gabara shows the crucial role they played in the development of both European and African cinemas, arguing that their recovery as a nonfiction tradition transforms our understanding of documentary itself. Grounded in extensive archival research, Gabara's book traces fifty years of French colonial documentary in sub-Saharan Africa-propaganda-infused travel, hunting, expedition and ethnographic films-from its beginnings in 1906 to the present. Following independence, African directors reclaimed their cinematic image by challenging outsider claims to authenticity and developing new models for nonfiction. Gabara highlights the nearly forgotten innovations of early decades and analyzes recent works that have attracted a wider audience on the continent and internationally. In a complex network of images and languages and across a dynamic range of modes, African documentarists have remade a global art form rooted in oppression, exoticization and a simplistic conception of filmic realism. By recounting a history of nonfiction film in which Europe and Africa were inextricably linked, Documentary Objectives brings together traditions that have been both marginalized and kept apart, charting new ground in the disciplines of film studies, African studies and French and Francophone studies. 
650 0 |a Documentary films  |z Africa, Sub-Saharan  |x History and criticism. 
651 0 |a Africa, Sub-Saharan  |x In motion pictures. 
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650 7 |a HISTORY / Africa / General.  |2 bisacsh 
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