Event
New African Documentary
MANTHIA DIAWARA
Documentary filmmaker and cultural theorist, Manthia Diawara, surveys the trends and developments of contemporary African cinema. A cinema that took form during the early years of independence, film in Africa has been both a cultural and political force. Diawara will screen selections created by a variety of film artists from across the African continent and attempt to put the work in historical and social context.
Manthia Diawara is director of the Africana Studies Program and the Institute for African-American Affairs at New York University and professor of Film and Comparative Literature. He also is creator and editor of Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, a journal of arts, culture, and politics. Born in Mali, his works are standard references for intellectuals worldwide. He is the author of Black-American Cinema: Aesthetics and Spectatorship (1993), African Cinema: Politics and Culture (1992), and In Search of Africa (1998). He has published widely on the topic of film and literature of the Black Diaspora. His last book We Won't Budge, recontextualizes the situation on immigration in France (2003).
More information on Manthia Diawara's visit to Philadelphia is available at: