There has always been a close tie between professional and commercial cinematic practices in Africa and Western capital. This is especially true of cinematic practices that are transnational in terms of their distribution or that target big screen exhibition. Scholars such as Diawara (1992), Haynes (2016), and Tsika (2022) have shown how this capital takes various forms including training and skill sharing, provision of production and post-production facilities, financial support, executive production, exhibitions at international film festivals and cinema houses, and most recently, online streaming. They have also examined how it involves the investment of and partnership with Hollywood majors like Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Prime Video; Western Europe’s corporate and government establishments as in the case of France and Francophone African cinema; and even multinational companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi that partner with cinema houses and multiplexes like Silverbird Cinema and Filmhouse Cinema. This panels seeks to create a conversation on the implications of Western capital for African cinemas from both industrial and cultural perspectives while taking note of historical accounts and contemporary trends. We also invite abstracts that focus on how this instance of African cinematic practices and Western capital can be compared with other cases of African and Western/global encounters in other forms of African artistic and cultural productions.
Please send your abstract to iaodugbe@iu.edu by March 15.
