When Ugandan action filmmaker Isaac Nabwana lists off some of the great action stars that became a huge personal inspiration, he says names like Bud Spencer, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Lee, but then he says Rambo (as opposed to Sylvester Stallone). The iconography of American Hollywood action cinema is not only in the stars who act in them, but oftentimes the characters themselves and what they do. How they’re perceived by filmgoers as entertainers are not restrained through economic means. Cultural iconography is created, not born or ordained to the elite. That is the essential project behind Wakaliwood, a makeshift “film industry” in the Ugandan rural village of Wakaliga.
Cathryne Czubek’s documentary Once Upon a Time in Uganda takes its audience behind the scenes of Nabwana’s production process, giving insight into the ways he thinks like an artist, a businessman, and a community leader. Czubek chooses to film certain scenes,...
Cathryne Czubek’s documentary Once Upon a Time in Uganda takes its audience behind the scenes of Nabwana’s production process, giving insight into the ways he thinks like an artist, a businessman, and a community leader. Czubek chooses to film certain scenes,...
- 7/7/2023
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
African cinema may, for most, be top of the blindspot list. The history of filmmaking, distribution, and access to cinema in African countries is contentious: for most of the 20th century Africa as a whole was represented exclusively through the eyes of the nations and kingdoms who colonized it, western filmmakers from Europe and the Americas shaping the world’s opinions of this continent and its artistic contents with their colonialist perspectives. Even ethnographic films (e.g. Jean Rouch), while depicting a more realistic version of various nations such as Nigeria or Cote d’Ivore, bore the outsider’s gaze. That all changed in the 1960s. In his 1983 documentary Camera d’Afrique, Férid Boughedir states that with the release of Ousmane Sembène’s debut short film Borom Sarret in 1963, “for the first time, the image of Africa had come from within.”
Camera d’Afrique, which was presented in a new...
Camera d’Afrique, which was presented in a new...
- 5/6/2021
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
The western genre as we know it is unique to a specific period and place. However, “The Five Fingers of Marseilles” simultaneously honors its cinematic ancestors while subverting the genre, exploring new territory by placing the story within an Indigenous South African community simmering with a legacy of colonialism. Directed by Michael Matthews and screenwriter Sean Drummond have created a welcome expansion of the western genre, particularly within the context of African cinema, where it has been underutilized for years.
“We started with a real world view of wanting to make a South African project that would travel and would find international audiences, and not only appeal to South Africans,” Matthews said in a phone interview. He was joined by Drummond, who agreed. “We felt it was time for a South African story to find its place on the world stage,” he said. “People who know westerns can relate to the film as a western,...
“We started with a real world view of wanting to make a South African project that would travel and would find international audiences, and not only appeal to South Africans,” Matthews said in a phone interview. He was joined by Drummond, who agreed. “We felt it was time for a South African story to find its place on the world stage,” he said. “People who know westerns can relate to the film as a western,...
- 9/5/2018
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
It’s an art film boom time in New York City. With more and more theaters cropping up than one could try and name off the top of their heads, citizens of The Big Apple have everything from the retrospective-centric programming of The Metrograph to their very own Alamo Drafthouse to give their money to in hopes of making a great cinematic discovery. However, don’t forget the museum scene.
As we make our way through the month of May, The Museum of Modern Art has scheduled two fantastic retrospective series, running back to back, that couldn’t be more different. Looking at the worlds of pre-Code Hollywood and African animation, May at MoMA is one of the most interesting repertory lineups seen yet this year.
Running May 5-16, MoMA follows-up their beloved 2016 series Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928-1937 with a return to the studio, this time looking...
As we make our way through the month of May, The Museum of Modern Art has scheduled two fantastic retrospective series, running back to back, that couldn’t be more different. Looking at the worlds of pre-Code Hollywood and African animation, May at MoMA is one of the most interesting repertory lineups seen yet this year.
Running May 5-16, MoMA follows-up their beloved 2016 series Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928-1937 with a return to the studio, this time looking...
- 5/8/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
MoMA Is Presenting The First North American Retrospective of Niger-Born Filmmaker Moustapha Alassane
In collaboration with Cultural Services Of The French Embassy, the Museum of Moden Art (MoMA) is presenting the very first North American retrospective of Moustapha Alassane (1942–2015), a pioneer of populist cinema in newly independent Niger in the 1960s and… Continue Reading →...
- 4/4/2017
- by shadowandact
- ShadowAndAct
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