Image credits: ocsfilms, Director of Photography filming, Nigeria; Ballet Nimba, scene from Fare-Ta (Land of Dance ) a film by Idrissa Camara from Wikimedia, poster for Lionheart, Genvieve NNaji, director

African Cinema is one of my favorite topics and there are so many incredible films out there!!

But where do I start? What am I looking for? How can I better understand what I'm watching? Who makes these movies? What is the history behind them?

SO many questions, I know!

Don't worry, while I can't answer every question you have, this course gives you some foundational knowledge and skills to watch, enjoy, and explore African cinema on your own.

In this introductory course, we will get a broad overview of African film history so you can start to view and interpret African Cinema in its artistic, historical, and cultural contexts.

Along the way, I will provide guides, worksheets, watchlists, and readings so you can get the most out of African cinema and its histories.

If you are new to film studies or need a refresher on film analysis, I strongly recommend you take our 'Learning to Look at Film' course before starting this one. In that course, you will develop and practice the basic vocabulary and critical observation skills required to do a film analysis and see African Cinema differently.

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Image credit: Georgia Popplewell, movie theater in Tanzania from Flickr, Chinedum55, behind the scenes of Jaja the Great from Wikimedia; poster for 2012 Cascade Festival of African Films

By the end of this course you will be able to identify, describe, and maybe even critique the primary styles, content, and historical contexts of films created by African directors in the 20th and 21st centuries.

But, don't pop your popcorn just yet!

Let's get started with the history and theory behind African cinema. Later on, we'll pull it all together with a couple of practice runs with film analysis.

Sound like a plan? Ready to roll? (pun intended) Let's do this... And, action!