Film course based on Walker Art Center Film Series
Engl 3040/5040, Afro 3910
Film and Fiction of African Director Ousmane Sembene
Special Course Based on Walker Art Center's Sembene Film Series
Sembene is widely regarded as the founder of African cinema and a major figure in world film. The British Film Institute chose his film Xala (The Curse) for its centenary collection of the 100 best films made in cinema's first hundred years. Walker Art Center is doing a Sembene retrospective this fall, gving us a rare chance to view all nine of his feature films (some of them quite rare) in full 35mm projection, with various scholars introducing them and discussing them.
Sembene was also a novelist, and many of the films are based on novels and short stories that he himself wrote. The class will read and study some of these literary works in order to compare them with the films they inspired, and will also view in class shorter films by Sembene that are not on the Walker program. Because Sembene's work deals with all the post-independence issues that still confront Africa today, the course will be of interest to students from a variety of disciplines, including literature, film studies, global studies, cultural studies, African studies, history, women's studies, and geography. Students from outside the University of Minnesota may register through Continuing Education and Extension.
Instructor: Charles Sugnet sugnet@umn.edu (Morse Alumni Award, Arthur Motley Exemplary Tch Aw) 3 credits. Course meets Wednesdays from 5PM to 7:30 PM. Students must reserve the time to view films at Walker Art Center on Friday and Saturday evenings between Nov 5 and Nov 20, and on Sunday afternoons November 7 and 14. Admission to the films at Walker Art Center will be free for registered students. Students may arrange to do the readings and submit their written work in French if that fits their educational objectives.