Foreign Films give cultural insight

What better way can there be to understand a foreign culture than through the lens of a movie camera? Foreign literature is an excellent way to learn their stories; but let’s face it, all words look the same on paper. Only through the focal darkness of the theatre are we free to let ourselves become the filmmaker for a few hours and experience their culture the way that they experience it themselves.

It is in the light of this realization that Dwight Call, assistant vice president for International Education, decided to run a series of such remarkable films this semester on the first Friday of every month at 7 p.m. in the Arts and Sciences Auditorium.

The first film, shown this past Friday, was an African film made in 1987 called “Yeelen.” The film was introduced by Dr. Eustace Palmer of the English Department as a heroic quest of the African oral tradition. Being the first of the foreign film series, “Yeelen” was the perfect choice because it comes from a country whose film industry is still in its infancy.

“I am disappointed in African cinema,” said “Yeelen” director, Souleymane Cisse. “African businessmen do not understand and do not want to understand. They are not interested in cinema.”

The ascension of corrupt president Moussa Traore in 1968 inspired Cisse to draw attention to the tale of Nianankoro and his quest to bring the violent order of the Komo back into benevolence. The film is difficult to understand for those not immersed in the culture of the Bambaros. However, it is interesting to see African culture through the eyes of Africans, as opposed to films that take an American impressionist view, such as “The Ghost and the Darkness.”

Palmer pointed out that this is one of the most important aspects of Foreign Film Fridays, “to see how these cultures see themselves in regards to their own beliefs and world views.”

As American students, it is also beneficial to note the restrictions regarding the technical aspects of filming in other countries.

“In Mali, there’s no theatre, no school of performers,” Cisse said. Cisse also said, “African culture is not one of writing,” and that this makes cinema a particularly difficult enterprise.

Given such circumstances, it is a great testament of cinema’s enduring power to reach across worlds to those who wish to see other nations as they are but have no means to travel to them.

“Yeleen” takes us to Africa with long landscape scenery combined with dramatic symbolism that testifies to the depth of religious and mythic culture. A dog running backwards in time, a conflict between father and son represented as two bulls ready to charge, and the use of eggs as a symbol of new life’s emergence from civil strife are just a few of the images used in “Yeleen” to contrast supernatural elements with the everyday regularity of African life.

Student reaction to the first film of this series is a strong-enough demonstration of its importance to GC&SU.

“I really like the cultural aspect of it and making connections through various arts,” said Junior English major, Debbie Scranton. “I’ll definitely be at the next one.”

Palmer also makes references to these connections, citing the use of the oedipal element in “Yeelen” and Nianankoro’s heroic journey, which “suggest that common archetypes are the same throughout international cultures.”

If anything, Foreign Film Fridays are a display of the commonality that we all share as human beings, even when we are immersed in the differences of ethnicity and traditions. How might we, as Americans, be seen by others through the eyes of our all too powerful and industrial Hollywood movie system?

If even in our colorless stream of bland made-to-order films we can find individual pearls such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Batman Begins,” then in looking across our borders, we might be able to recognize that in the cinematically starved continent of Africa, “Yeelen” is a gem.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 14 2005. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry