Black Camera: African Women Professionals In Cinema: Manifestos, Communiqués, Declarations, Statements, Resolutions by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2021)

Black Camera: African Women Professionals In Cinema: Manifestos, Communiqués, Declarations, Statements, Resolutions

by Beti Ellerson (Spring 2021)

Black Camera: An International Film Journal African Cinema: Manifesto & Practice for Cultural Decolonization, Part II Vol. 12, No. 2, Spring 2021, pp. 536-590

Compiled here is a selection of documents that span several decades. The desire is to represent as many regions of the continent as possible, as well as to outline the evolution of African women’s discourse as image-makers. At the same time, it emphasizes the critical need to historicize documents through preservation and archival practice, by all means. Created collectively or pronounced individually, these women-focused manifestos reveal the importance of addressing gender parity and women's concerns through institutionalized structures that empower their voices and recognize their strengths. In addition, these documents show the prevalence of organized meeting venues as a means for African women to network, voice their concerns and negotiate their place, in the same context as written manifestos and declarations with resolutions that follow. Hence, included are several reports and proceedings of conferences whose purpose is to plan, strategize and implement goals. In addition, film festival practices encompass broader engagements of cinema, and are perhaps some of the most important spaces in which to showcase the goals and objectives of film organizations and individual filmmakers, as well as implement them, and, at the same time present films—along with debates about them—that would not be seen otherwise. And with the ubiquity of social media, visual documents, in the form of video clips and slide presentations, continue the call to action, by visualizing ideas, concerns, and strategies for change. Hence, the selection attempts to incorporate these media as well, which together reflect past, present and future visions and voices of African women.

Published by: Indiana University Press
URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.12.2.26

Black Camera Part II
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.12.issue-2

 

ALSO SEE PART I: Fifty Years of Women's Engagement at FESPACO by Beti Ellerson (Fall 2020)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/05/black-camera-fespaco-fifty-years-of-womens-engagement.html.html