ABSTRACT
In 2008, Focus Features, the arthouse division of NBC-Universal, launched a sponsorship program called Africa First, a competition to support the pre-production, production, or post-production of short films by filmmakers based within the African continent. The name Africa First has multiple connotations, including an overture of prioritizing African filmmaking, placing it at the forefront. The phrase might also suggest positionality, a hierarchical logic informed by hegemonic perceptions of developing economies and culture industries of what is variously considered the Global South or the “Third World.” The declared mission of the Africa First financial support and mentorship initiative (which lasted from 2008-12) was to cultivate “auteurist” talent, as well as international profiles of African filmmakers (Sanogo 2015). Through this framing, such films may also potentially register as inaugural to particular audiences (e.g. first African films screened/viewed from particular nations, novel iterations of particular genres, etc.), as they circulate in the international image market. The African First project thus begs the question: What’s at stake in being an African film “first?” This essay questions numbered or ranked discourses and assertions of pioneer status, in an
exploration of challenges in theorizing filmmaking from Sub-Saharan Africa. I approach the subject via the larger frames of national/transnational/world/global cinema studies and African cinema and media studies, with an emphasis on the role of gender. Always already problematic, “first film” labels (such as first African film, first black African film, first film from a given African nation made by a woman, etc.) and “ThirdWorld” or “Third Cinema” constructions are further complicated when viewed through a womanist, decolonialist, or feminist postcolonial prism. I survey here some key scholarly and mediated constructions of African filmmaking by women, recognizing the complexities of discourses of African gendered authorship, modes of production and reception, and the politics of representation. In particular, I examine cases of women filmmakers with work that collectively spans five decades, and demonstrates female agency and discursive resistance.
