Sub-Saharan African Cinema
Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana and other French-speaking nations were the earliest and strongest sources of black African Cinema.
Senegal is the most important film-producing country in sub-Saharan Africa, largely owing to the work of Ousmane Sembene.
Though boasting a developed film infrastructure, South Africa was largely devoted to servicing European and American filmmakers and films such as Blood Diamond and 10,000 BC.
Still, local production grew, garnering world attention with Hotel Rawanda & Tsotsi
Dir Gavin Hood with cast members holding Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
Amidst this, a multi-million-dollar, moviemaking industry emerged in a country that had almost no movie theaters.
In 1992 Kenneth Nnebue made a low, budget VHS film called Living in Bondage about a man who murders his wife and is haunted by her ghost. The movie sold over 750,000 copies launching a video-based cinema that became one of Nigeria's most powerful industries.
By 2008, there were 300 companies churning out over 200 new releases each week, taking in over $200 million per year and employing hundreds of thousands of workers.
Since 1971 India has been the largest film-producing nation in the world with 1/4 of the global output of films.
By 1995 the estimated weekly film audience was 100 million people.
By 2005 India was producing 1,000 features annually in more than 16 languages with 25% of that total produced in Mumbai (Bollywood).
Nearly all were musicals & romances where the songs were lip-synched.
The formula for these films has been described as:
“a star, 6 songs, 3 dances, 3 hours long, and in vivid color”
Director Farah Khan
One of the founding directors of this movement was Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1921-1992).
With a style resembling Italian Neorealism, Ray is considered the preeminent Indian filmmaker of
the postwar era. He made 30 films, nearly all of which ran counter to Indian Commercial cinema.
During the post war period, he criticized the contemporary Indian cinema for its exaggerated spectacle and inattention to reality.
He felt the purpose of film was: "the revelation of the truth of human behavior"
In the 1980s, another route to greater diversity for Indian Cinema was offered by foreign co-productions, which also promised the opening of new markets. And none were more active than India’s one-time imperial ruler, Great Britain.
By this point in 2001, Nair had become the most famous Indian filmmaker since Satyajit Ray.
One of the most controversial films of the 1990s was Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen
The film lashes out at the caste system, the mistreatment of women, and police brutality in the true story of Phoolan Devi
During this time, Hollywood gained no traction in India as moviegoers stayed loyal to Indian films
Jurassic Park may have dominated the globe, but it was no match for 1994s Who Am I to You!
By 2000 over 20 million Indians were living abroad, and the emergence of DVD serviced them while providing another profit stream for producers.
Soon films told the stories of NRIs (nonresident Indians) living in NY, London, Paris and other Western capitals and a third of the industry’s income came from outside India.
As a result, filmmakers began upgrading their product in service of this new market
Directed by Gurinder Chadha, Bride and Prejudice is a Bollywood romantic musical adaptation
of Pride and Prejudice.
Today’s Indian Cinema, while still enjoying spectacle, is far more diverse than the “a star, 6 songs, 3 dances, 3 hours long, and in vivid color” paradigm
Dir S.S. Rajamouli Primarily works in Tollywood Cinema, is the highest paid director in India.