Thursday, July 21, 2005

Glamourizing tyrants

LINK

I have two problems with this: First, it is told in the viewpoint of a white man (why do they only make films of Africa with European leads?)

The second problem I have is THIS:

It would be simple enough to make the dictator merely monstrous, but Foden defies expectation, rendering him appealing even as he terrifies. The doctor "couldn't help feeling awed by the sheer size of him and the way, even in those unelevated circumstances, he radiated a barely restrained energy.... I felt--far from being the healer--that some kind of elemental force was seeping into me."

Alas, good films on Africa are few and far between. Indeed, the best way to teach Europeans the village experience of many Africans is to show them part one of the mini series Roots...of Kunta Kinte's childhood.

Outside of that series, most movies show a distorted picture of Africa...Hotel ruanda shows massacres, and The gods must be crazy shows the culture clashes, but of the bushmen, not the Bantu...

Calling Spike Lee...calling Spike Lee...

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