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“The International Festival Network and the Transnational Reach of African Cinema”

07Dec

Speaker

Professor Will Higbee

Professor Will Higbee

Film Studies
University of Exeter, UK


Time

1600-1715, 07 Dec 2018

Venue

OEM1018 OEN Hall Main Building, Ho Sin Hang Campus, HKBU


Speaker's bio:

Will Higbee is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. He has researched and published extensively on transnational, diasporic, and postcolonial cinema in the context of both European and African cinema. He is currently leading an international research project on Transnational Moroccan Cinema, working with researchers and filmmakers in North Africa, Europe and North America. 

Abstracts:

According to industry analyst Stephen Follows, as recently as 2013 there were more than 3000 film festivals active globally. This international festival network  is, of course, far from uniform: encompassing festivals of different scale, reach, duration and focus, and with varying levels of transnational connectivity (from the niche, two-day festival organized by volunteers on a shoestring budget to the multi-million-dollar behemoth that is an A-list international film festival). Using Moroccan cinema as a case study, the presentation will analyze the complex relationship of African filmmakers to the international festival network. More specifically, the presentation will focus on festivals as an alternative distribution network for African films, issues of access and exclusion, the cultural politics that emerge when European festivals act as co-producers for African cinema, as well as considering the new sites for transnational production and platforms for distribution beyond the West offered to African filmmakers by an increasing number of festivals worldwide.