| Abstract: | This article examines discourses and cinematic representations of modernity in two documentary films by the Cameroonian director Jean-Marie Teno. In the first of these films, 'A Trip to the Country' (2000), Teno investigates how ideals and aspirations of modernity as a state-sponsored project in Cameroon have their roots in the colonial period, and his film is characterized by a strong sense of anxiety linked to the turn of the millennium. In the second, 'Sacred Places' (2009), modernity is given a different affective resonance and is linked to the pleasure of cinematic consumption in Ouagadougou as Teno situates African cinema in relation to its 'brother,' the djembe drum. The author argues here that a shift occurs between these two films and their affective engagements with modernity; this is a transition from a sense of millennial anxiety to a thematics of what he calls 'cinematic kinship'. The author ultimately suggests that this shift allows Teno to outline new social roles for the African filmmaker as well as new relationships between African cinema and local publics. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
AfricaBib 
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Leiden University catalogue
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