African Realities in Motion: The Role of Dance in Vieyra's Films in Constructing Intersubjective African Identities

This article examines how Vieyra's treatment of his subjects' intersubjective realities serves as a critique of the normative ethnographic film genres of the era that served to "other" African peoples and cultures. Using examples of dance in Vieyra's films, the article demonstrates how depictions of the African body in motion explicitly served to cultivate his uniquely African film aesthetics and ethics. This exploration of Vieyra's awareness of the interconnectedness of film, ethnography, colonialism, and dance seeks to articulate a new way for scholars of film and dance to understand the role that dance plays in African film.