Seminar: Film culture and Rwanda: A historical-anthropological view
This seminar discusses the political and cultural history of cinema in Rwanda from colonial times until the present, focusing on how images produced in Rwanda have impacted on the identity and perception of the Rwandese. The importance of producing their own images became evident after the genocide of 1994 when cinema became a political instrument for those directly and indirectly involved in events. It is also the genocide and the presence of international film productions, institutions and non-governmental organizations that led the Rwandese to develop their own ‘micro film productions’. The speaker will also show some film clips.
Speaker
Guido Convents, a specialist in early film history, is an independent Belgian historian with a PhD in History from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven). His first book on the cinema in Africa was entitled À la recherche des images oubliées. Préhistoire du cinéma en Afrique 1896-1918 (Brussels, 1986). He became president of the Africa Film Festival in Leuven in 1996 and has published extensively on the subject, with titles including Images et démocratie. Les Congolais face au cinéma et à l'audiovisuel. Une histoire politico-culturelle du Congo des Belges jusqu'à la République démocratique du Congo (1896-2006) (Berchem/Leuven, 2006) and Images & Paix. Les Rwandais et les Burundais face au cinéma et à l'audiovisuel. Une histoire politico-culturelle du Ruanda-Urundi allemand et belge et des Républiques du Rwanda et du Burundi (1896-2008).
Date, time and location
25 April 2013
15.30 - 17.00
Pieter de la Courtgebouw / Faculty of Social Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden
Room SB11
Registration
Posted on 5 March 2013, last modified on 16 February 2017