Abstract
This chapter proposes an integrated view of the deployment of cinema in Guinea-Bissau's process of so-called national reconstruction, examining the PAIGC’s policies and public discourse towards film consumption and production in the aftermath of independence. Drawing on original interviews as well as on a series of articles in the state-run newspaper Nô Pintcha, we explore how film culture became a battlefield where the liberation struggle continued to be fought years after formal decolonisation, in September 1974. If conjuring up a new mental image of the nation required new physical images, then reels and screens became material weapons in the PAIGC’s cultural battle. With that in mind, this chapter is less focused on films’ actual content than on their place in the political economy of independence. It begins by tracing the history of colonial screenings, revealing how the 1963–74 war contributed to increase film exhibition, particularly of certain genres. It then addresses how, simultaneously, international partnerships during the struggle triggered expectations about which type of cinema might best contribute to the new national project. Moving to the post-independence period, a third section focuses on the way Nô Pintcha voiced a confrontation between these coexisting tastes and understandings of cinema. Finally, the chapter discusses the state’s ambitions and obstacles in creating its own filmic representation of the nation, mapping a network of contacts established between local agents and foreign partners while analysing the way audiovisual works were designed to build a ‘national identity’. We identify a running tension between, on the one hand, the legacy of colonial images and distribution structures and, on the other, the desire to weaponize cinema as an extension of the liberation struggle. The ensuing battle for Guinea-Bissau’s film
culture entailed the clash and convergence of state and non-state forces from around the world, ranging from the United States, USSR and Cuba to France, Sweden and Hong Kong.
culture entailed the clash and convergence of state and non-state forces from around the world, ranging from the United States, USSR and Cuba to France, Sweden and Hong Kong.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Globalizing Independence Struggles of Lusophone Africa |
Subtitle of host publication | Anticolonial and Postcolonial Politics |
Editors | Rui Lopes, Natalia Telepneva |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Bloomsbury |
Chapter | 13 |
Pages | 243-259 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781350378308 |
Publication status | Published - 2024 |