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This is a review on a section of the French film Les statues meurent aussi (1953), directed by Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, two French filmmakers framed in the Nouvelle Vague that refused to follow …

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The Distribution Forum is our unique event to bring together African and UK-based filmmakers from the diaspora with leading UK-based film distributors. It is an open workshop, free to the public where practical advice on …

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Film aficionados, please be sure to check out Film Africa 2011, taking place 3rd – 13th November at various London cinemas and co-organised by SOAS Senior Lecturer Lindiwe Dovey.
Film Africa boasts:
10 days of more than …

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Having been involved in the early baby poops of Project: Carousel! – it is a delight to see the new buzz of energy here.  I am also glad to have handed the reins over to …

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President Yoweri Museveni rap with Lyrics – Do you want another rap Official video
Ugandan President Museveni’s rap song on You Tube is doing the rounds in Uganda, bringing him much needed positive publicity. But what …

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Trucking the dream.
Hello all, i thought I’d bore you with some tails of the road and why trucks are cool.
The theoretical blurb, come waffle;
Recently I’ve been doing some work in Ghana, a tricky situation after …

Following on from my previous post about the digital divide not being the internet’s fault, I thought I’d write about some more practical stuff. As the benevolent dictator said: ‘Ttheory is good only as far as it connects to something’. So in this post I’ll be looking at digital activism in Zimbabwe – sokwanele.com and kubatana.net.

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There is a presumption held by many that a pluralist media system enables an open and free debate on political and social issues and a flow of  accurate news reporting. In countries that have recently …

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Somewhere deep in the northern savannah there is an ideological clash that will affect the lives of the 5,000 inhabitants of Binaba for decades to come. Leninist collectivization meets autocracy in a system perhaps harking …

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(UPDATE!  The continuing discussion in NYT has made me edit my post a bit.  Please note that I have specially erased references to the comment that I referred to as I know now a bit …

We have been tossing around a lot of theory this term, both in the Thursday group and in the many classes I have had the pleasure of having a role in. One question that is often asked: what use is all this complex theory and philosophy? That is, once you get into the messy world where you have to actually get things done, how do you then instrumentalize some of the ideas that we enjoy reading and debating? Why the extra headache?

We have had two very good seminars recently. Both, naturally, link to some of the interests we want to develop here at PC (Project Carousel). The first was by our very own post-doctorate exchange researcher from the University of Tampere, Kaarina Nikunen. Her presentation, titled “Internet, Diaspora and Identity” looked at her ongoing research among the young immigrants in Finland and their use of contemporary technology and media to express themselves in a homogeneous society such as Finland. The second presentation was by our research associate at SOAS, Lindiwe Dovey. She gave also an excellent talk “”African Screen Media”: African film, video, and their audiences” that focused on the development of African film in the past 50 years and especially the recent boom in local home-grown video industries. Nigeria alone made 1,500 film last years making it – at least in terms of output – the largest film industry in the world. Definitely a theme also to follow here.

Last September we hosted Ken Banks from Kiwanja.net as a part of our weekly seminar series at the Centre for Media and Film studies at SOAS. He is one of the key figures working on the emerging field of mobile activism that is becoming increasingly popular especially in Africa. Ken has since done quite a lot of interesting work and is constantly writing about his work in mobile activism on his blog. Recommended reading. As I recall, the discussion at the seminar was rather lively: the critical questions focusing on the potential problems of such a developmental and technology-based approach to solve some of the problems Africa faces. The discussion continued and trickled down on his blog even after the event was over. I briefly quote Ken: