DOCSLIB.ORG

Schwerpunkt 8 Focus Section

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Schwerpunkt 8 Focus Section SCHWERPUNKT 8 FOCUS SECTION © Chris Murray on Unsplash Against all odds Filmmaking in Sudan Rhea Schmitt group of foreign trained filmmakers active before the own narratives, for national and international regime came into power. Other filmmakers work for audiences, whatever the format. They do not international organizations producing educational see themselves and their cultures represented films, like Mia Bittar and Alyaa Siralkhatim, while some in international media or on state television. As filmmakers maintain their day jobs in completely dif- established filmmaker Mia Bittar pointed out, their ferent fields and choose to make their films with their approach of trial and error, despite governmental own money and free time, like Razan Hashim. Finally, I and infrastructural restrictions, inspired her and also worked with filmmakers who left to study abroad others to find solutions around restrictions for and returned, like Suhaib Gasmelbari, for example. their own ambitious productions. After 10 years of totalitarian dictatorial regime, filmma- Curator Afifi described filmmaking in Sudan as © Rhea Schmitt king and media production outside of war propaganda a baby that just left the incubator doing its first “There are four obstacles to film and pho- had come to a halt. However, the dynamics began to steps on its own. Seeing the various high-quality tography in Sudan. The sun, the society, change due to a shift in technology and politics in the productions generated during Al Bashir’s regime the government and the government.” late 1990s and early 2000s. Satellite TV entered Sudan and over the last months - DURING AS WELL AS FROM Ali Mohamed Osman and enabled people to watch more than just state tele- WITHIN THE REVOLUTION - it is certain that filmmakers Professor of Photography at Sudan Uni- vision. Filmmaking technology became more affordable in Sudan will continue to build their film industry versity for Science and Technology and with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with with whatever means available. the South in 2005, Sudan moved into the focus of inter- Filmmaking in Sudan has a long but difficult history national interest and press. Combined, these events due to the continuous political and economic chal- triggered a modest but important opening of the media lenges. Despite that, there are critically acclaimed landscape. Filmmakers and media professionals, who films, some of which were recently restored by had left the country in the early 1990s, returned from the Arsenal Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. abroad, established filmmakers started exploring poten- and screened at the Berlinale. Three recently tial new avenues of production, and foreign news produced films by Sudanese filmmakers are cur- producers and filmmakers entered Sudan. During the rently touring film festivals : the dramaI Will Die same period, the Sudanese Film Group resumed their at 20 by Amjad Abu Alala and the documentaries meetings to educate young filmmakers. They also began Khartoum Offside by Marwa Zain and Suhaib collaborating on films. In 2009, film curator Tilal Afifi © Rhea Schmitt Gasmelbari’s Talking about Trees, which tells founded the Sudan Film Factory, a collaborative project the story of four filmmakers trying to reopen a with the Goethe-Institut, which provided basic practical cinema in Sudan . film training to aspiring filmmakers. Nowadays, the Sudan Film Factory is an independent institution that In my Master’s thesis, I focused on the motiva- supports, educates and collaborates with filmmakers tions and aspirations that drive filmmakers and and created the firstSudanese Independent Film Festival media creators, the role of access to training, as (SIFF). This improved public access to films, which well as the impact of technological developments had been previously mainly limited to foreign cultural About the Author: and the changing political situation of filmma- centers. The SIFF and the festivals that followed shortly Rhea Schmitt completed king. As little research has been conducted on after created an additional motivation for filmmakers her MA in African History filmmaking between 2000 and 2015, Sudanese to produce films and enabled them to interact with at Humboldt-Universität filmmaker colleagues strongly suggested focusing international colleagues, learning from them and vice zu Berlin (2017) after on this period. I conducted 34 interviews with versa. In addition, more multi-media courses were working as a filmmaker different groups of film professionals, varying in introduced at various universities which brought forth in Sudan for three years. age, political and personal backgrounds, career some successful filmmakers. The arrival of the internet She collaborated with trajectories and production contexts. For instance not only provided access to a wider range of films Sudanese colleagues on filmmakers working within the system, like Ibrahim but also to informal film education, either through various productions and © Rhea Schmitt Saehoon, who use those means to create within official online courses or DIY YouTube channels . These is working with the Sudan the restrictive boundaries, as well as those fighting developments led to an increase in people working in Film Factory on the pub- the system and working independently like the the field of film productions. One of the main motiva- lication of her thesis in members of the Sudanese Film Group (SFG) - a tionsthat drive Sudanese filmmakers is to create their English and Arabic..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TRUE/FALSE FILM FEST 2020 FEATURE FILMS 45365 | Dir. Bill & Turner Ross; 2009; 94 Min (United States) Prod. Bil & Turner
    TRUE/FALSE FILM FEST 2020 FEATURE FILMS 45365 | Dir. Bill & Turner Ross; 2009; 94 min (United States) Prod. Bil & Turner Ross It’s 69 degrees and sunny at the Shelby County Fair. Long-haul trucks whiz by, a solo trumpeter takes the stage, and downtown Sidney’s tree-lined main street disappears into the rearview mirror in a stunning opening sequence. Dazzling and earnest, this debut film by Bill and Turner Ross uses the sounds of public radio, marching bands, and police scanners to cleverly collapse time and space, taking us from the weekend weather to a live interview with the 4-H queen first runner-up. Here, in the heart of the Ohio valley, spotted horses prance in their stables, teenage boys race in junk derbies and local politicians canvass door-to-door for their reelections. Filmed over the course of nine months, the camera moves deftly between flirting, freak shows, and football, reminding us that the everyday is extraordinary and “it’s ​ ​ always fun to watch little kids run around with their hogs.” (JA) ​ ​ Aswang | Dir. Alyx Ayn Arumpac; 2019; 85 min (Philippines) Prod. Armi Rae Cacanindin Blood stains the sidewalks as President Duerte undertakes what he calls the “neutralization of illegal drug personalities,” but what citizens of Manilla have come to know as nothing less than a killing spree. In her feature-length debut, Director Alyx Arympac sensitively approaches the trauma that has befallen her subjects: a journalist who fights the government’s lawlessness; a restrained coroner; a brave missionary’s brother who tries to comfort the bereaved families of the dead; and Jomari, who lives on the streets after his parents were jailed.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 January 28, 2016
    January 28, 2016 1. Lina M. Fruzzetti E-mail: [email protected] 2. Education: 1962-66 Dominican College (previously named Rosary College), River Forest, Illinois, B.A. in Economics 1966 1966-69 Roosevelt University, Chicago 1969-70 University of Chicago, Illinois, M.A. in Anthropology 1970 1970-75 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Ph.D. in Anthropology 1975 Dissertation topic: “Conch-Shell Bangles, Iron Bangle; an Analysis of Women, Marriage and Ritual in Bengali Society" 3. Professional Appointments: 2016 Fellow, Jawaharlal University Institute for Advanced Studies (JNIAS) 2015 Visiting Professor at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) of the Center for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS) at JNU (Delhi, India) 2007-2016 Director of South Asia Studies Undergraduate Concentration 2013-16 Tenure, Appointments, and Promotions Committee (TPAC) 2012-15 American Council of Learned Societies Screening Committee 2012-16 Trustee, American Indian of Indian Studies (AIIS) 2002-16 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Dissertation Grants Selection Panel 2012-15 Co-Director South Asian Studies 2014 Visiting Scholar, IIT Gandinagar (India) 2012-14 Steering Committee Brown India Initiative 2013-15 Director of the India/Brown Study Abroad Program 2010-13 Fulbright Fellowship Screening Committees 2011-12 Institutional Diversity Officer and Associate Provost 2011-12 Department Graduate Supervisor, Anthropology 2011-12 Teagle Fellow 1 2010-11 Visiting Professor at the ISCTE, Institute Universitario de Lisboa 2010-11 Tenure, Appointments, and Promotions Committee (TPAC) 2009- 10 Co-director for ISCTE-IUL/Brown/JNU Masters in Indian Studies 2002-08 Board Member, Mellon Minority University Fellows Dissertation Grants, Brown University 2000-10 Faculty Fellows to the Royce Fellowship Program 1999-04 Program Director for AIRMS (Alliance International Research for Minority Scholars).
    [Show full text]
  • African Film Cultures
    African Film Cultures African Film Cultures: Contexts of Creation and Circulation Edited by Winston Mano, Barbara Knorpp and Añulika Agina African Film Cultures: Contexts of Creation and Circulation Edited by Winston Mano, Barbara Knorpp and Añulika Agina This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Winston Mano, Barbara Knorpp, Añulika Agina and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8649-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8649-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Winston Mano, Barbara Knorpp and Añulika Agina Part 1: History, Memory and African Cinema Chapter One ............................................................................................... 14 Memory as Engagement: The Importance of Personal Histories in Sub-Saharan African Cinema Sheila Petty Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 31 Voicing the Archive:
    [Show full text]
  • Talking About Trees
    Talking about Trees A film by Suhaib Gasmelbari 93 mins / Sudan/France/Germany/Chad/Qatar / Arabic with English subtitles / 2019 / Cert PG Berlin International Film Festival World Premiere (Panorama) 2019 Berlin International Film Festival Panorama Audience Award and Glashütte Original Documentary Award 2019 Istanbul International Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize (International Competition) 2019 Release January 31st 2020 FOR ALL PRESS ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT: Sue Porter/Lizzie Frith – Porter Frith Ltd Tel. 07940 584066/07825 603705 [email protected] FOR ALL OTHER ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT Robert Beeson – [email protected] Dena Blakeman – [email protected] 79-80 Margaret Street London W1W 8TA Tel. 020 7299 3685 [email protected] SYNOPSIS: “What kind of times are these, when To talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?” ― Bertolt Brecht Ibrahim, Manar, Suleiman and Altayeb are the members of the Sudanese Film Club founded in 1989. Unable to make films for years, they have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united not only by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old films and draw attention to Sudanese film history once more, but also by the fact that they all enjoyed a film education outside Sudan. Their plans to renovate the outdoor cinema come up against bureaucracy, lack of cash and a general fear of upsetting “he who cannot be named.” (The film was made before the recent overthrow of Omar al-Bashir). In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past and the history of Sudanese cinema, including their experiences of persecution and even torture as oppositional artists.
    [Show full text]
  • ON Archives, Legacies and New Waves of SUDANESE CINEMA Film
    Coming soon to YOUR SCREENS: ON archives, legacies and new waves of SUDANESE CINEMA Film ScrEENiNg & DiScuSSioN 22.11.–24.11.2017 SAVVY Contemporary The Laboratory of Form-Ideas A collaboration between the Sudan Film Factory, Studio Gad, Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art and S A V V Y Contemporary. Supported by “Engagement Global” with financial support of the Bundesministeriums für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung and supported by the Cultural Desk of the Sudan Embassy in Berlin. CONCEPT In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, Sudan was at the cutting edge TALAL AFIFI 1976 is a Sudanese film of filmmaking in Africa. Gadalla Gubara, a lesser known curator, creative producer, and the founder and director pioneer of African cinema, realised over 50 documen- of Sudan Film Factory, a production house and film tary and feature film productions and made some of the culture platform that works since 2010 in empowering continent’s best-known films. He incepted Khartoum’s and building youth capacities in the field of documen- first film studio, Studio Gad and is a founding father of tation, filmmaking and freedom of expression. He is the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI and the founder and president of Sudan Independent Film the FESPACO festival in Burkina Faso. Today Sudan is Festival since 2014 and art manager of Karmakol once again entering a new arena of filmmaking. The first International Festival. He is also a member of the execu - ever film festival in the country, the Sudan Independent tive committee of the Sudanese Writers’ Union.
    [Show full text]
  • Cinema at the End of Empire: a Politics of Transition
    cinema at the end of empire CINEMA AT duke university press * Durham and London * 2006 priya jaikumar THE END OF EMPIRE A Politics of Transition in Britain and India © 2006 Duke University Press * All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Quadraat by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data and permissions information appear on the last printed page of this book. For my parents malati and jaikumar * * As we look back at the cultural archive, we begin to reread it not univocally but contrapuntally, with a simultaneous awareness both of the metropolitan history that is narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating discourse acts. —Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism CONTENTS List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. Film Policy and Film Aesthetics as Cultural Archives 13 part one * imperial governmentality 2. Acts of Transition: The British Cinematograph Films Acts of 1927 and 1938 41 3. Empire and Embarrassment: Colonial Forms of Knowledge about Cinema 65 part two * imperial redemption 4. Realism and Empire 107 5. Romance and Empire 135 6. Modernism and Empire 165 part three * colonial autonomy 7. Historical Romances and Modernist Myths in Indian Cinema 195 Notes 239 Bibliography 289 Index of Films 309 General Index 313 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Reproduction of ‘‘Following the E.M.B.’s Lead,’’ The Bioscope Service Supplement (11 August 1927) 24 2. ‘‘Of cource [sic] it is unjust, but what can we do before the authority.’’ Intertitles from Ghulami nu Patan (Agarwal, 1931) 32 3.
    [Show full text]
  • BBG) Board from January 2012 Through July 2015
    Description of document: Monthly Reports to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Board from January 2012 through July 2015 Requested date: 16-June-2017 Released date: 25-August-2017 Posted date: 02-April-2018 Source of document: BBG FOIA Office Room 3349 330 Independence Ave. SW Washington, D.C. 20237 Fax: (202) 203-4585 The governmentattic.org web site (“the site”) is noncommercial and free to the public. The site and materials made available on the site, such as this file, are for reference only. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals have made every effort to make this information as complete and as accurate as possible, however, there may be mistakes and omissions, both typographical and in content. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information provided on the governmentattic.org web site or in this file. The public records published on the site were obtained from government agencies using proper legal channels. Each document is identified as to the source. Any concerns about the contents of the site should be directed to the agency originating the document in question. GovernmentAttic.org is not responsible for the contents of documents published on the website. Broadcasting 330 Independence Ave.SW T 202.203.4550 Board of Cohen Building, Room 3349 F 202.203.4585 Governors Washington, DC 20237 Office of the General Counsel Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Office August 25, 2017 RE: Request Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act - FOIA #17-058 This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act .(FOIA) request dated June 16, 2017 to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which the Agency received on June 20, 2017.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary East African Cinema: Emergent Themes and Aesthetics
    Contemporary East African Cinema: Emergent Themes and Aesthetics A thesis submitted to the University of Sydney in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art History and Film Studies School of Literature, Art and Media Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Cindy Evelyn Magara 2020 Statement of Originality This thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my own original work. It contains no material previously published or written by another person except as otherwise duly acknowledged in the text and notes. Research for this thesis was based on primary texts—films and interviews of the filmmakers—and secondary sources. The University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee approved the protocol of interviewing East African filmmakers. All the participants consented to be identified. Cindy Evelyn Magara 2020 i Table of Contents Abstract iv List of Acronyms v Acknowledgements vii Dedication ix Chapter One: East African Cinema—Background and Conceptual Framing 1 Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 The History and Legacy of Colonial Film in East Africa ---------------------------------------------- 7 Factors for the Growth of the Film Industries in the 2000s ----------------------------------------- 15 Industry Dynamics: Film Production and Funding, Regulation and Distribution and its Impact on Aesthetics-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Funding and Regulation
    [Show full text]
  • Sudanese Cinema: Past, Present and Future
    Art and Design Review, 2021, 9, 268-283 https://www.scirp.org/journal/adr ISSN Online: 2332-2004 ISSN Print: 2332-1997 Sudanese Cinema: Past, Present and Future Abubaker Elsiddig Ahmed Elmustafa Elsheikh Hayaty1*, Chenji Yin1, Zakir Ullah1, Safia Yahya Hamed Ahmed1, Tian He2 1Department of Drama Film-TV Studies, College of Communication, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China 2Sudan and South Sudan Research Center, Northwest Normal Universty, Lanzhou, China How to cite this paper: Hayaty, A. E. A. E. Abstract E., Yin, C. J., Ullah, Z., Ahmed, S. Y. H., & He, T. (2021). Sudanese Cinema: Past, Present and Although the Sudanese Cinema started with the British colonization of Su- Future. Art and Design Review, 9, 268-283. dan, but it is still considered as undeveloped industry. The first film produced https://doi.org/10.4236/adr.2021.93022 was Alarming Queen’s Company of Grenadier Guards in Omdurman Battle in 1898. The history of Cinema in Sudan could be categorized into three pe- Received: July 26, 2021 Accepted: August 23, 2021 riods according to the colonization and present cituation: colonial (1898-1956), Published: August 26, 2021 post-independence (Mid 1950s-Mid 1980s), and recent (Mid 1980s-2010) his- tory. Films were produced under the supervision of the General Liaison Of- Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and fice of the British Government till 1949; then, the Sudan Film Unit (SFU) was Scientific Research Publishing Inc. established to serve and highlight the progress achieved by the government This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International and to show the development of the British Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cultural Cold War and the Global South
    6 Cinema in the Spirit of Bandung: The Afro-Asian Film Festival Circuit, 1957-1964 ElenaRazlogova Afro-Asian cinematic exchange took off slowly after the celebrated 1955 Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. At that point, strong film industries in Japan, India, and Egypt-then part of the United Arab Republic (UAR)-far outpaced any other national cinemas in the region. Most African territories remained under colonial power and had no national film industries. When the First Afro-Asian Film Festival (AAFF) took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1958, only 14 Asian and African countries participated, along with eight Soviet Asian republics. 1 The official festival communique announced future installments, in accordance with the "principles of the Bandung Conference" and "under the sign of peace and friendship among peoples" (Iskusstvo kino 1958b). Chinese delegates took exception to the emphasis on peace. "Our cinema art has to prop up the militant will of our peoples and inspire fear in our enemies," they wrote in a private note to Tashkent festival organizers (RGALI2944/13/206/122). 2 After two more meetings in Cairo and Jakarta the Afro-Asian festival ended in 1964. Four years later, the First Tashkent Festival for Asian and African Cinema hosted over a hundred filmmakers from Asia and Africa, and observers from Latin America. By then, cinema became a key weapon of liberation. Many participants' home countries-what was then called the Third World-pursued strategic alliances with the Soviet Union and the socialist Second World against colonialism, capitalism, and Western imperialism (Dirlik 2007). The festival drew on alliances between socialist states and anticolonial movements, renewed at the Tricontinental Conference in Havana, Cuba in 1966 (Mahler 2018).
    [Show full text]
  • Sudan Field Visit
    Sudan Field Visit May 2015 The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) organizes field trips to several Arab countries in order to understand the local cultural scene, discover new talents, Introduction promote cooperation among them and introduce to local artists and cultural institutions AFAC’s grant programs that offer financial and professional help. In this context came AFAC’s visit to Sudan, which took place between May 11th and May 17th 2015. For five days, AFAC’s Executive Director Oussama Rifahi visited Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North-Bahri, where he met many Sudanese artists, got introduced to the local cultural and artistic scene, and presented AFAC’s grants programs to potential beneficiaries. Rifahi held around thirty cultural, artistic and social meetings, visited more than twenty sites, and met dozens of people who work in the cultural field. 2 Sudan Situated northeastern Africa, Sudan is bordered by Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east, Egypt and Libya to the north, Chad and the Central African Republic to the west and by South Sudan to the south, after the latter split from the central government in 2011 following a civil war that extended to more than 50 years. Sudan is home to many racial, ethnic and religious groups, but Islam influences the cultural background of the majority of its population. The country was rocked by many military coups, the last of which was the one led by Omar al-Bashir in 1989, when he ousted the democratically-elected government of Sadiq Mahdi, and became the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and later president of the republic.
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of the Indian Film to Free the Audience from Orientalism
    DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Communication Master of Arts Theses College of Communication Spring 5-2015 Love Conquers All: The Power of the Indian Film to Free the Audience from Orientalism Margaret Redlich DePaul University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Redlich, Margaret, "Love Conquers All: The Power of the Indian Film to Free the Audience from Orientalism" (2015). College of Communication Master of Arts Theses. 27. https://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt/27 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Communication at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Communication Master of Arts Theses by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Love Conquers All The Power of the Indian Film to Free the Audience from Orientalism by Margaret Redlich, B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of DePaul University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Media and Cinema Studies Abstract Love Conquers All The Power of the Indian Film to Free the Audience from Orientalism By Margaret Redlch, B.A. DePaul University, 2015 Thesis Advisor: Michael DeAngelis Committee: Sheila Malik Indian film and the way it interacts with the non-Indian fan community for Indian film presents an alternative to Oriantalist discourses by reaching out on an emotional level. Through surveys and interviews, this study shows how the fans find the films, find a community, and build a connection to India based on their initial massive emotional reaction to the films.
    [Show full text]