In this volume, the work of early Black filmmakers is given serious attention for the first time. Individual essays consider such topics as what a Black film tradition might be, the relation between Black American Filmmakers and filmmakers from the diaspora, the nature of Black film aesthetics, the artist's place within the community, and the representation of Black imaginary.
In 1996 Manthia Diawara, a distinguished professor of film and literature in New York City, returned to Guinea, thirty-two years after he and his family were expelled from the newly liberated country. Diawara's journey gives us the story of a quest for a childhood friend, for the past and present, and above all for an Africa that is struggling to find its future.
MANTHIA DIAWARA is Professor of English and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Thirty years after leaving his native Mali, Manthia Diawara has a home in New York City, and more than a few acclaimed publications to his name. Still, he cannot shake the memories of his birth countr
