Worth a closer look: a comparative study of 'Xala' and 'Osuofia' in London

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Worth a closer look: a comparative study of 'Xala' and 'Osuofia' in London
Author:	Kilian, Cassis
Year:	2013
Periodical:	Journal of African Cinemas (ISSN 1754-923X)
Volume:	5
Issue:	1
Pages:	55-71
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	filmmakers films Nollywood
About persons:	Sembène Ousmane (1923-2007) Kingsley Ogoro
Abstract:	Since the turn of the twenty-first century, films produced in Africa have been categorized as either 'elitist' auteur cinema or 'popular' video films. This antagonism is not least due to a tendency to overload the study of African film with theory and thereby to lose sight of the movies themselves. As the same concepts and authors are cited repeatedly, we read a lot of self-references instead of references to the films themselves. In an attempt to bridge the emerging gap between these two types of film, the article proposes a closer look at Ousmane Sembène's satire 'Xala' from 1974 and the successful two-part video comedy 'Osuofia in London' by Kingsley Ogoro from 2003/2004. The films have little in common in terms of production and reception contexts, but a comparison of the auteur film and the video film may reveal similarities in theme and mise-en-scène. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]