Contribution short abstract:

In Africa, colonialism deployed cinema for its advance and for indoctrination; to these ends, it “mystified” cinema operations. Subsequently, neo-colonialism perpetuated filmmaking-discourse dependency; however, rising decolonisation movements, subvert these dominations.

Contribution long abstract:

In the wake of the screen-decolonisation movement, I am writing a Routledge-commissioned monograph, An Introduction to Inclusive and Critical Film Directing (2024). It initiates, to the discourse of film directing, a “third space” where critical concepts and voices from minoritised cinemas do not remain on the fringes of the location. In other words, this monograph centres not only the indispensability of dramaturgical critical-practice to film directing largely overlooked in the discourse, but slso prioritises inclusion, diversity and cultural sensitivity to directorial craft. To contextualise these two aspects, although the text invites critical Western contexts, it prioritises those of the “Global South”, as well as of Black-British and African-American films, which are largely overlooked in the scholarship of film-production.

This paper will, thus, offer insights into the intersecting location of Postcolonialism, African Cinema, and the Ubuntu Philosophy which informs the methodology of the monograph. It will underscore that this paradigm proposes new concepts and techniques from marginalised film-spaces to mediate production tensions unlimited to the ‘gendering’ of (leadership) roles, team-work fatigue, and problematic leanings of auteur theory, which privileges the director as “the” author - by implication, ‘invisibilizing’/deprioritising team contributions. It will draw on my interviews with actors and directors from the “Global South”, and their approaches to mise en scène, minimalist directing, production collaboration, and psycho-spiritual systems of acting. In summary, the presentation will discuss how the text attempts to disrupt colonial legacies in the discourse of film directing.