African Cinema History - The State of African Cinema

African Cinema History - The State of African Cinema
Cinema of Africa is both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary cinematic technology in use. During the colonial era, African life was shown only by the work of white, colonial, Western filmmakers, who depicted Africans in a negative fashion, as exotic "others". As there are more than 50 countries with audiovisual traditions, there is no one single 'African cinema'. Both historically and culturally, there are major regional differences between North African and sub-Saharan cinemas, and between the cinemas of different countries.

The cinema of Tunisia and the cinema of Egypt are among the oldest in the world. Pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière screened their films in Alexandria, Cairo, Tunis, Soussa and Hammam-Lif in 1896.Albert Samama Chikly is often cited as the first producer of indigenous African cinema, screening his own short documentaries in the casino of Tunis as early as December 1905.Alongside his daughter Haydée Tamzali, Chikly would go on to produce important early milestones such as 1924's The Girl from Carthage. In 1935 the MISR film studio in Cairo began producing mostly formulaic comedies and musicals, but also films like Kamal Selim's The Will (1939). Egyptian cinema flourished in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, considered its Golden Age.Youssef Chahine's seminal Cairo Station (1958) foreshadowed Hitchcock's Psycho and laid a foundation for Arab film.

The Nigerian film industry is the largest in Africa in terms of volume[clarification needed], number of annual films, revenue and popularity.It is also the second largest film producer in the world.In 2016 Nigeria's film industry contributed 2.3% towards its gross domestic product (GDP).
African cinema is an expression of a cultural identity, African cinema is the search for an own specific style and a way to overcome alien influences. In addition, African cinema plays a social and economic role, it has an impact for the domestic sphere of society (in terms of education, culture and economic development/investment). And, African cinema possesses a high artistic film-specific originality, which can bring a fresh jive into world cinema.

The most important concern to African filmmakers is to examine their reality with their own eyes and to describe it authentically. Showing Africans holy, flawed, sane, crazy, confused, loving, daring, worried, competent, a mess … – just as they are.

And in spite of often poor financial and structural problems of most African countries in the postcolonial era, a socially critical – but nevertheless aesthetic and charming – film genre with highly realistic standards has developed. One just has to go to various international and of course specifically African film festivals like in Ouagadougou, Durban, Cape Town, Edinburgh, Cannes, Toronto and Berlin, to see for oneself. But this is more or less, where the buck stops.

Although we live in a global village and in an e-information driven period, a world wide web of information and downloads just a click away, dominated by social mass media enabling social uprisings and the toppling of governments, one still finds oneself struggling to get access to African films, be it at video shops, cinemas, and online sales agencies like Amazon etc. And only the future will tell, if the highly but prematurely praised Video-On-Demand platforms, which without doubts bear potential, can bring the long anticipated “breakthrough” for African cinema.

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