Guide to African Cinema (review)

Guide to African Cinema, by Sharon A. Russell. Westport: Greenwood P, 1998. 184 pp.

This book belongs to a series, Reference Guides to the World's Cinema, which intends to provide "a representative idea of what each country or region has to offer to the evolution, development, and richness of film" (ix) for a general as well as scholarly American audience. According to the series editor, the guides must be comprehensive yet selective and may reflect the author's "idiosyncrasies" (ix). Guide to African Cinema is more selective than comprehensive, and its idiosyncrasy at times compromises quality.

Sharon Russell provides relatively brief essays on forty films and sixteen directors drawn predominantly from sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the films (thirty of thirty-seven) and directors (ten of eleven) come from West and West Central Africa. All five North African directors and two of the three North African films comes from either Egypt or Algeria. There is but one Nigerian entry and none from Mozambique. Although West Africa does dominate African film production, the geographical scope should be more diverse and inclusive. Because Russell's coverage of North Africa is too skimpy to be useful, and she is more knowledgeable about Black African cinema, she should have concentrated on sub-Saharan films. Such bifurcation is commonplace and sensible in African studies since the geographic division reflects distinctive cultures, language, and cinematic histories. Russell is strong in her recognition of women's contributions to African cinema with a biographical sketch of Sarah Maldoror and essays about four films directed by women.

Russell's main goal--to highlight good-quality films of varied genres that combine entertainment with articulation of distinctive African perspectives--is fulfilled. But some of her rationales for selection/exclusion seem arbitrary or inconsistently applied. She rules out some but not all films with European directors yet includes several made by white Africans. Although her benchmark is the degree of African participation and expression of the African perspective, she omits the fine South African film Mapantsula, directed by a German, even though it centers on Johannesburg township life under apartheid and reflects the extensive collaboration of Thomas Mogotlane.

The controversial The Gods Must Be Crazy is vetoed on the grounds of racism although she admits that a Black African friend finds merit and pleasure in the San (Bushman) protagonist as African trickster. My judgment is that the film satirizes the silly, arrogant white characters and applauds the natural dignity, skill, and good sense of the San. Since Russell disagrees with such positive interpretations, would it not instruct American viewers if she published a persuasive indictment?

A curious criterion for excluding Reassemblage (which the author likes) is her discomfort at possible Western misunderstanding of its nudity--not the fact that director Trinh T. Minh-Ha is an outsider (naturalized Vietnamese American) whom Frank Ukadike has chastised for continuing the "romantic and paternalistic treatment of Africa" (Black African Cinema [Berkeley: U of California P, 1994] 54). The logical remedy for Russell's apprehension would again be a corrective explanation.

Other selection criteria invoke different problems. Russell provides no rationale for excluding (with one exception) all feature films that run under an hour. More troubling is her use of films only readily available to the American public. This decision precludes some important films; it does not credit the increasing access afforded by more vendors, more titles, and less expense for video format. By discounting the growing interest in African film represented by film festivals, conferences, and academic courses, Russell forfeits the opportunity to expand public curiosity and knowledge about African cinema.

Frustratingly, Russell does not consistently match entries for directors and their films. Some directors of films that merit an entire essay are not similarly honored; for example, Quartier Mozart, Battle of Algiers, and Finzan have individual entries, but directors Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Pontecorvo, and Cheick Oumar Sissoko do not. Conversely, Haile Gerima has his own entry, but his major films Harvest 3000 Years and...