Notes

Quotes for which there are no references come from interviews in Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film Video and Television (Africa World Press/Red Sea Press, 2000)

I would like to thank Françoise Pfaff for her extensive reading of the essay and her thoughtful comments.

[1]For more extensive history of the emergence of African women the cinema see Sisters of the Screen, which includes a bibliography .

[2]Je me suis dit que la femme était interdite d'image: on ne peut pas lui prendre son image, mais elle n'en est pas propriétaire non plus. Du fait qu'elle est cloitrée, elle regarde l'intérieur, mais elle ne peut pas regarder l'exterieur, ou seulement si elle est voilée et qu'elle ne regarde que d'un oeil.  Je me suis donc dit que j'allais faire de ma caméra cet oeil de la femme voilée. Cited in Suzanna Crosta, "Strategies de subversion et de liberation : l'inscription et les enjeux de l'auditif et du visuel chez Assia Djebar et Ousmane Sembene, " Littérature et cinéma en Afrique francophone, Ousmane Sembene et Assia Djebar, edited by Sada Niang (Paris: Harmattan, 1996), from Benesty-Sroka, Ghila, "La Langue et l'exil", La Parole métèque, 21 (1992): 24, p. 51.

[3]U.S. distributor, California Newsreel

[4] French distributor, Médiathèque des Trois Mondes.

[5]  A main language of Burkina Faso.

[6] Here I refer to Dziga Vertov's Kino-Eye: "I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it--My path leads to the creation of a fresh perception of the world. I decipher in a new way a world unknown to you" (1923).

[7] Sud Week-end, No. 1054 12 October, 1996, p. 6.

[8] Mendy, Renee.  Interview with Mariama Hima, Niger-Director/Ambassador to France as of 1997. Amina, no. 328, August 1997, p. 15.

[9] Unpublished interview by author, April 1997, African Literature Association Conference, East Lansing, Michigan.

[10] U.S. distributor, ArtMattan.

[11] French distributor, Médiathèque des Trois Mondes.

[12] U.S. distributors, California Newsreel and Media for Development International.

[13] U.S. distributor, Media for Development International.

[14] See the Female Body And Space: The Female Body In African Cinema, Ecrans d'Afrique, no. 11, 1st quarter 1995, p.28- and "The Female Body as Symbol of Change and Dichotomy: Conflicting Paradigms in the Representation of Women in African Films." With Open Eyes: Women in African Cinema, ed. Kenneth W. Harrow. Matatu 19, 1997, p. 31-44. Because of the predominance and accessibility of films by men especially at the time of the writing (1994 and 1995), the majority of the works focused on films by men, by which the majority of fiction films are made.

[15] For an elaboration of eroticism in African films see Françoise Pfaff, "Eroticism and Sub-Saharan African Films" in African Experiences of Cinema, eds. Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham, London: BFI, 1996, pp. 252-261.

[16] Mbye Cham, "Film Text and Context: Reweaving Africa's Social Fabric Through Its Contemporary Cinema".

[17] Olivier Barlet, Interview with Safi Faye, Africultures. November 1997 p. 10-.

[18] Emiliano, "La Nudité dans le cinéma Africain-quand le nu chasse le beau/Nudity in African cinema- when nudity drives away beauty," Amina, No. 253 May 1991, pp.30-32.

[19] U.S. distributor, California Newsreel.

[20] Harry Cahill, producer. Africa World Film. World of Film Foundation. 1993.

[21]Interview by author, February 1997, FESPACO, Ouagadougou published as "Africa Through an African Woman's Eyes: Safi Faye's Cinema" in Françoise Pfaff, Focus on African Film, Indiana University Press, 2004.

[22] Sud Week-end, No. 1054 12 October, 1996, p. 6.

[23] U.S. distributor, Third World Newsreel.

[24] U.S. distributor, Women Make Movies.

[25] Unpublished interview by author, April 1997, African Literature Association Conference, East Lansing, Michigan.

[26] Lucy Gebre-Egziabher distributes her films through her U.S.-based company Teret Productions, teret_productions@yahoo.com

[27] U.S. distributor, California Newsreel.

[28] In their book, African Experiences of Cinema, (London: BFI, 1996) editors Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham address Maldoror's positioning vis-à-vis Africa as follows: "Placing Maldoror within the context of African cinema more often than not prompts an apologetic tone in response to the fact she was born in France. But this seeming incongruity should serve as a reminder of the important relationship between the emergence of African cinema and the ideas of pan-Africanism and liberation struggles which have been part of the continent's history in the 20th century." p. 45.

[29] See Françoise Pfaff's chapter on Sarah Maldoror, Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers, Greenwood Press, 1988, pp. 205-216.

[30] U.S. distributor, New Yorker Films (no longer in existence).

[31] Jadot Sezirahiga. Interview with Sarah Maldoror, Ecrans d'Afrique, No. 12, 1995, p.6.

[32] Khal Torabully. "Rencontre avec Horria Saihi : Le dur combat pour la liberté.

[33] Unpublished interview by author, February 1997, FESPACO, Ougadougou.

[34] U.S. distributor, Women Make Movies.

[35] Alisha Ozeri. Documentary addresses the lives of refugees in Africa, October 29,1996.

[36] U.S. distributor, California Newsreel.

[37] Nick Ryan. "Truth under Siege" August 11, 1998.

[38] Network of East-West Women: Celebrating Women (link no longer available, last accessed 2006).

[39] UNESCO

[40] Elma Lititia Anani, Alkaly Miriama Keita, Awatef Abdel Rahman. Women and the Mass Media in Africa: Cases Studies of Sierra Leone, the Niger and Egypt the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, 1981.

[41] I would like to note that Africans of European descent are not included in this essay, which has been the case in general in African Cinema discourse. South African film scholar Keyan Tomaselli questions the assumptions behind this exclusion in "Some Theoretical Perspectives on African Cinema: Culture, Identity and Diaspora", Africa and the Centenary of Cinema.  Paris and Dakar: Présence Africaine, 1995, pp. 105-136.

[42] Werewere Liking. "An African Women Speaks against African Filmmakers," Black Renaissance, fall 1996 pp.170-.

[43] Jadot Sezirahiga. Interview with Sarah Maldoror, Ecrans d'Afrique, No. 12, 1995, p. 6.

[44] Interview by author, February 1997, FESPACO, Ougadougou.

[45] Unpublished interview by author, February 1997, FESPACO, Ougadougou.

[46] Mbye Cham. "African Women and Cinema: A Conversation with Anne Mungai." Research in African Literatures, Vol. 25, No. 3, Fall 1994, pp. 93-104.

[47] French distributor, Médiathèque des Trois Mondes.

[48] Sama Emmanuel, Interview with Fanta Nacro. Amina, May 1992, pp. 21-22.


[49] Such as the website, Gender and Women's Studies for Africa's Transformation, among others.