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• Lizelle Bisschoff

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• All Staff
• Afe Adogame
• Kenneth Amaeshi
• Gerhard Anders
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• Lizelle Bisschoff
• Barbara Bompani
• Davide Chinigò
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• Sara Rich Dorman
• Lawrence Dritsas
• Joost Fontein
• Anne Griffiths
• Johanna Hanefeld
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• Kenneth King
• Francesca Locatelli
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• Rebecca Marsland
• Ian Maudlin
• Thomas Molony
• Stephen Neff
• Paul Nugent
• Colin Pritchard
• A.F. Robertson
• Rick Rohde
• Peter Rosa
• Michael Rosie
• Andrea Schafer
• James Smith
• Isabella Soi
• Sam Spiegel
• Sarah Vaughan
• David Wield
• Sue Welburn
• Ed Wilmsen
• Wolfgang Zeller
• Marta Patricio

Lizelle Bisschoff

Research

I am currently conducting a two-year research project on the emerging East African film industries. Due to its relatively small cinematic output in comparison to other regions, East African cinema is hugely underrepresented in historical and analytical studies of African cinema as a whole. However, over the past decade, film industries have started to develop in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Various forms of indigenous filmmaking are increasingly emerging, such as popular video-film industries based on the Nigerian “Nollywood” model, as well as activities aimed at training young aspiring filmmakers and supporting the distribution and exhibition of local films. On the whole, these initiatives could be seen as aiming to decolonise screens, as film exhibition in this region has historically been dominated by “colonial” films (such as productions of the Bantu Educational Film Experiment initiated by the British colonial administrators) and cheap imports such as Hollywood, Bollywood, Kung Fu and Westerns. Due to the natural beauty of East Africa, it has also long been a location for foreign films which mostly use the landscape as an exotic backdrop to tell Western stories. In this research project I am assessing the emergence of indigenous filmmaking in East Africa in an attempt to trace how audio-visual representations contribute to imagining and shaping the postcolonial nation. 

Africa in Motion Film Festival

I founded the Africa in Motion film festival in 2006. It is an annual African film festival taking place at Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh. Over the past 5 years the festival has included almost 200 African films from all over the continent, with screenings accompanied by directors masterclasses, workshop and discussions, arts exhibitions and performances by African musicians. The 2011 festival takes place from 2-6 November, and the theme of the festival is "Children and Youth in Africa". For further information, please see www.africa-in-motion.org.uk

Teaching

I will be teaching an MSc option course entitled "African Popular Culture" in semester 2. 

The aim of this course is to introduce students to some of the most significant aspects of popular culture in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Manifestations of popular culture are considered as markers of modern African identities, embedded in complex and varied socio-cultural, -historical and –political contexts. Within the current era of globalisation and the transnational exchange of knowledge and information, it is neither sufficient any longer to view Africa solely from a “development discourse” perspective, nor to discuss contemporary African culture within the tradition-versus-modernity debate. Manifestations of popular culture in Africa show that the continent is part and parcel of the “modern world”, with cultural production simultaneously influenced by global trends and specific African contexts.

The course will cover various forms of cultural expression and genres, including popular film, music, dance, comics and cartoons, fashion, sport, street art, theatre, and contemporary visual arts. Attention will be paid to the production modes, audiences and sites of consumption of these different genres and aspects of popular culture. Course instruction will include extensive film and clip viewings, analysis of music, and reading fictional texts such as graphic novels and comics. For the course assessment students will conduct research into any relevant topic of their choice.

Education

• PhD in Film Studies in the School of Languages, Cultures and Religions, University of Stirling

• Thesis title: An aesthetic and thematic analysis of filmmaking by women in francophone West Africa and lusophone and anglophone Southern Africa 

• MSc in Cultural Studies, University of Edinburgh

• Dissertation title: Gender construction in the work of Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembene: Challenging binary conception in the struggle against colonialism

• Bachelors of Arts Honours Degree in Literary Theory and Communication Studies, University of Johannesburg

Publications

• “Digital as the new popular in African cinema? Case studies from the continent” (with Ann Overbergh), Research in African Literatures, Indiana University Press (forthcoming 2012)

• “Representing Africa in Europe: Programming the Africa in Motion Film Festival”, in: Special Edition of Research in African Literatures: (In)Visibility in African Cultures, Indiana University Press (forthcoming 2012)

• “Reconciling the Nation: Fanta Regina Nacro’s La Nuit de la Vérité”, in: Art and Trauma in Africa: Representations of Reconciliation in Music, Visual Arts, Literature and Film, I.B. Tauris (forthcoming 2012)

•  "Introduction: Representing the Unrepresentable", (with Stefanie Van de Peer), in: Art and Trauma in Africa: Representations of Reconciliation in Music, Visual Arts, Literature and Film, I.B. Tauris (forthcoming 2012)

• Art and Trauma in Africa: Representations of Reconciliation in Music, Visual Arts, Literature and Film, Edited Collection (co-editor with Stefanie Van de Peer), I.B. Tauris (forthcoming 2012)

• “Visions of Female Emancipation: Three recent films from West Africa”, Journal of African Cinemas, Intellect (Volume 2.1, 2010)

• “Sub-Saharan African Cinema in the Context of FESPACO: Close-ups on Francophone West Africa and Anglophone South Africa”, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Oxford University Press (August 2009)

• “Africa's lost classics”, Special Dossier (co-editor with David Murphy), in: Screen (Volume 48, Number 4, Winter 2007) 

• “Framing diversity in the new South Africa: The Project 10 documentary series”, in: Crossing Places: New Research in African Studies, Cambridge Scholars Press (2007)

This page was published on 19 January 2012