African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent (review)

Joseph Gugler's African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent examines how contemporary motion pictures represent Africa and its peoples. The book's main focus is Black African cinema, though it provides a brief discussion of several films about Africa made in Hollywood and in apartheid-era South Africa. In focusing on films made by and about Africans, Gugler introduces readers to a lesser-known version of the continent's past, one that provides a corrective to a century of negative Western cinematic representations. Well-organized and clearly written, this book will be an invaluable resource for the growing community of scholars using film to teach about Africa's past.

The book loosely organizes seventeen films into six thematic chapters, titled "Recovering the African Past," "Fighting Colonialism," "The Struggle for Majority Rule in South Africa," "Betrayals of Independence," "The Exploited and Neglected Peasantry," and "Between the African Mass Market & International Recognition." Each chapter begins with a brief historical overview that provides context for the discussion of the films. This overview is followed by a close reading of several films that share a common theme. Gugler devotes most of his attention to movies made in African countries by African directors for African audiences. However the book integrates a discussion of three movies that were aimed at the Western market—Out of Africa, The Gods Must be Crazy, and A Dry White Season—as well as two films made by European directors working closely with African writers and actors, the antiapartheid drama Mapantsula, and the Zimbabwean Chimurenga film Flame.

The readings of the films are informed and frequently insightful. For the most part, the book synthesizes the works of film scholars such as Peter Davis, Frank Ukadike, and Oliver Bartlet; however, Gugler makes an original contribution to film scholarship by documenting the process whereby many of these stories were transformed from literary works into motion pictures. Throughout the book, he demonstrates a firm understanding of African history and a thorough knowledge of African literature, cinema history, and film theory.

The ambitious scope of this book means that teachers looking to use it in class will want to supplement it with other materials. For example, the book's discussion of Sidney Pollack's Out of Africa does not adequately locate that film in the history of imperial epics that scholars like Gugler and African filmmakers are responding to. Likewise, the chapter on apartheid can only scratch the surface of the history of cinema in the struggle for majority rule in South Africa. Fortunately, Gugler has included for each film thorough bibliographies, which will prove invaluable to instructors looking to expand on his treatment of these topics. These bibliographies are supplemented by many large, clear, and useful illustrations, as well as several maps.

African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent will be most useful if read in tandem with viewings of the films discussed. Unfortunately, this may prove difficult for many readers. Only three of the seventeen films are readily available at most video rental stores. The remainder range in price from expensive to very expensive, or are not available at all. Gugler acknowledges this challenge in his introduction, though the text is still written for an audience that has presumably seen some of the films discussed.

Gugler has provided a service to the field by creating a concise, thoughtful, and accessible work. The fact that there is no similar book alone would recommend it. The clarity of Gugler's prose and his enthusiasm for the subject make it highly recommended.