Gaze Regimes. Film and Feminisms in Africa
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GAZE REGIMES FILM AND FEMINISMS IN AFRICA EDITED BY JYOTI MISTRY AND ANTJE SCHUHMANN Gaze Regimes.indd 1 2015/05/05 3:29 PM Published in South Africa by: Wits University Press 1 Jan Smuts Avenue Johannesburg, 2001 www.witspress.co.za Compilation © Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann 2015 Chapters © Individual contributors 2015 Foreword © Goethe-Institut sub-Saharan Africa 2015 Published edition © Wits University Press 2015 Photographs © Individual copyright holders 2015 With support from First published 2015 978-1-86814-856-1 (print) 978-1-86814-859-2 (PDF) 978-1-77614-165-4 (open Web PDF) All rights reserved. No part of this publication 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 written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978. Edited by Alison Lowry Proofread by Inga Norenius Index by Sanet le Roux Cover design by Hybrid Creative, South Africa Book design and layout by Hybrid Creative, South Africa Printed and bound by Paarl Media, South Africa Gaze Regimes.indd 2 2015/05/05 3:29 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements v Foreword vii Katharina von Ruckteschell, Goethe-Institut sub-Saharan Africa Introduction: By way of context and content ix Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann 1 African Women in Cinema: An overview 1 Beti Ellerson 2 ‘I am a feminist only in secret’ 10 Interview with Taghreed Elsanhouri and Christina von Braun by Ines Kappert 3 Staged Authenticity: Femininity in photography and film 18 Christina von Braun 4 ‘Power is in your own hands’: Why Jihan El-Tahri does not like movements 33 Interview with Jihan El-Tahri by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann 5 Aftermath – A focus on collective trauma 44 Interview with Djo Tunda wa Munga and Rumbi Katedza by Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry 6 Shooting Violence and Trauma: Traversing visual and social topographies in Zanele Muholi’s work 55 Antje Schuhmann 7 Puk Nini – A Filmic Instruction in Seduction: Exploring class and sexuality in gender relations 81 Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry Gaze Regimes.indd 3 2015/05/05 3:29 PM 8 I am Saartjie Baartman 97 Nobunye Levin 9 Filmmaking at the Margins of a Community: On co-producing Elelwani 118 Jyoti Mistry 10 On Collective Practice and Collected Reflections 133 Interview with Shannon Walsh and Arya Lalloo by Jyoti Mistry 11 ‘Cinema of resistance’ 148 Interview with Isabel Noronha by Max Annas and Henriette Gunkel 12 Dark and Personal 161 Anita Khanna 13 ‘Change? This might mean to shove a few men out’ 168 Interview with Anita Khanna by Antje Schuhmann and Jyoti Mistry 14 Barakat! means Enough! 174 Katarina Hedrén 15 ‘Women, use the gaze to change reality’ 182 Interview with Katarina Hedrén by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann 16 Post-colonial Film Collaboration and Festival Politics 188 Dorothee Wenner 17 Tsitsi Dangarembga: A manifesto 201 Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga by Jyoti Mistry and Antje Schuhmann Acronyms and Abbreviations 212 List of Contributors 213 Filmography 215 Index 218 Gaze Regimes.indd 4 2015/05/05 3:29 PM ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The inception of this book is attributed to the vision of Katharina von Ruckteschell and its fruition was managed by Henrike Grohs with additional support from Lilli Kobler and Norbert Spitz of the Goethe Institut, Johannesburg. Our sincerest thanks to the dynamic and inspiring women who participated in the 2010 ARTSWork meeting: Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, Christina von Braun, Seipati Bulani-Hopa, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Taghreed Elsanhouri, Beti Ellerson, Rebeccah Freeth, Maria João Ganga, June Givanni, Katarina Hedrén, Ines Kappert, Marie Ka, Musola Catherine Kaseketi, Rumbi Katedza, Elke Kaschl-Mohni, Anita Khanna, Mary- Beatrix Mugishagwe, Jane Murago-Munene, Fanta Régina Nacro, Villant Ndasowa, Maren Niemeyer, Isabel Noronha, Monique Phoba, Eve Rantseli, Yewbdar Anbessie Setegn, Arice Siapi, Jihan El-Tahri, Dorothee Wenner and Debra Zimmermann. Our appreciation to colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg: Georges Pfruender, Jeanne Do O Faustino, Jurgen Meekel, Bhekizizwe Peterson, David Andrew, Nobunye Levin, Tawana Kupe and Ruksana Osman as well as the Humanities Faculty Research Committee. Special thanks to: Derilene Marco, Patrick Ebewo, Lindiwe Dovey, Robyn Grimsley and Alison Lowry, Florian Schattauer and Blackboard Trust, Uhuru Productions, STEVENSON and the Mail and Guardian photo-archive. To the peer-reviewers, for their valuable observations and suggestions, and to the committed team at Wits University Press, with special appreciation to Roshan Cader. Gaze Regimes.indd 5 2015/05/05 3:29 PM Gaze Regimes.indd 6 2015/05/05 3:29 PM FOREWORD KATHARINA VON RUCKTESCHELL, GOETHE-INSTITUT SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA n the spring of 2010 the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg initiated the forum ‘ARTSWork Platform: Meeting of African Women Filmmakers’ Iwith the primary objective to build a platform for women pursuing careers in art. The inaugural focus was on women filmmakers. Established filmmakers from 14 different countries across Africa came together to discuss the state of the industry from the perspective of women professionals, to promote female talent and to support each other in their efforts to ensure gender equality. The processes and outcomes of the three-day meeting were astonishing. The main questions raised were of a concrete, professional nature. Challenges in terms of discrimination, access to funding and difficulties to operate confidently as professionals and employers in a male dominated field, were also addressed. A fruitful discussion also centered on the content side of filmmaking. The production of images of Africa that challenge (neo-) colonial, patriarchal narratives, on the one hand, and patriarchal traditionalism on the other, is vital to women in Africa, who continue to assert spaces for self-expression and self-determinism. Though a gathering of both men and women professionals might not have proceeded much differently, the impression is that this platform provided a space fruitful for the uninhibited exchange of such concerns. Gaze Regimes.indd 7 2015/05/05 3:29 PM Above all, though, the meeting emphasised the need for collaboration between women through co-productions or informal networks that would result from these spaces and similar contexts. This publication is another valuable outcome of the meeting, which serves as a timely document of concerns and thoughts by women film practitioners at a certain moment in time and – hopefully – as a catalyst for future discussions. viii GAZE REGIMES Gaze Regimes.indd 8 2015/05/05 3:29 PM INTRODUCTION BY WaY OF CONTEXT AND CONTENT JYOTI MISTRY AND ANTJE SCHUHMANN he initial impetus for this book was to collect, archive and document the very disparate stories that emerged from a unique gathering of Twomen all working in and with film, who came to Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2010 from different parts of the African continent and from Germany, and met at the Goethe-Institut. The occasion was the ARTSWork Platform: Meeting of African Women Filmmakers. At first sight, the context for a dialogue between a German cultural institution, invited participants from Germany and film practitioners from all over Africa was an obvious axis through which the meeting should be mediated. However, it turned out very differently. We soon realised that this was only a starting point. The direction and breadth of the views and opinions expressed, and the workshop topics and the discussions that arose out of these sessions, saw a far more complex web emerging than anyone had anticipated – of co-dependencies and inter-relationships on the African continent, where national similarities were shared and divides interrogated, all against the rich landscape of film, festivals, feminism and funding politics. ARTSWork (2010) was the spark for a series of engagements that would take place over the following two years, on occasion facilitated through other Goethe-Institut events in Johannesburg, such as the ‘Über (w)unden (Art in Troubled Times)’ conference (September 2011), Gaze Regimes.indd 9 2015/05/05 3:29 PM but also at other events that were ripe with opportunities for film practitioners to meet in a single place, such as the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in 2010. There were multiple forms of simultaneous conversation taking place among women – and also some men – at different times, in formal and informal spaces, on planned and unplanned occasions, where various people met, exchanged, disagreed, shared and collaborated. Some exchanges were once-off conversations, some had to be revisited and some are still ongoing. The common thread was that all of the participants were active in one or several aspects of filmmaking. It is almost a cliché to say that women need to tell their own stories, that women’s voices need to be heard, that Africa has numerous stories and experiences that have to be shown. Yet the cliché holds a kernel of truth. We would add: these stories and experiences not only need to be shown, but to be shown by women, on their own terms. Filmmakers often describe themselves as storytellers, though the modes of storytelling may come in different forms and present unique experiences. And theorists often position themselves as interpreters on the outside of these stories. If filmmaking is about storytelling, this book is also about storytelling, and its stories are ongoing. But it is also about the conditions of storytelling and it is these conditions that partly shaped the process of how we decided to put these voices together and how we chose the framework within which to share them. Given the focus on filmmakers who identify as female and who live and work in different countries in Africa, a feminist framework to interpret these women’s experiences and to ‘read’ their filmic work was an obvious choice. Africa as a geo-political location is also a space of collective and shared memories within which conflict and post-conflict narratives emerge.