Abstract

I approach the phenomenon of activist filmmaking on the African continent through a series of brief evocations in support of my central contention, which is that much of the filmmaking by African filmmakers can legitimately be described as activist, in some sense of the term. Indeed, it is my view that a pervasive commitment to effecting change through moving images makes filmmaking by African filmmakers a considerable resource and source of public value, not only in Africa, but globally. In addition to fueling creativity and giving shape to the works of specific filmmakers, activist commitments have had a decisive impact, in Africa, on film-related institution building (film schools and festivals) and transnational discourses and alliances. Whether or not the envisaged changes have been effectively implemented, filmmakers’ activist intentions, across the continent and throughout the post-colonial era, have produced something of great public value, namely, a conception of filmmaking that has the potential to offer much needed resistance to dominant models of film production that yield forgettable (or worse still, ideologically questionable) content at astronomical costs, all supported by production practices that are not only unsustainable but a factor in the perpetuation of a variety of types of injustice, including those related to race and gender.