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Contemporary African Cinema

New Auteurs, Popular Industries, Platforms, Genres, Politics, Archives and Transmission

This course studies contemporary African cinema as a plural field shaped by new auteurs, festivals, popular industries, Nollywood, YouTube, series, platforms, genre films, hybrid documentaries, experimental forms, memory, ecology, gender, cities, archives, publics and professional transmission.

Duration

18 hours

Modules

6

Lessons

18

Curator

Unga Curatorial Desk

Format

6 modules · 3 lessons each · 18 hours total

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Course objectives

What you will build through this learning path

Learning objectives

  • Define contemporary African cinema through period, method, criteria and pitfalls.
  • Analyze new auteurs, festival ecosystems and international recognition.
  • Study popular industries, Nollywood, YouTube, regional industries, series and platforms.
  • Understand genre, futurities, hybrid documentary, experimental forms and transmedia practices.
  • Analyze politics, memory, ecology, gender, cities, youth and new subjectivities.
  • Program, document and transmit contemporary African cinema through Unga tools.

Skills acquired

  • Contemporary cinema analysis
  • Festival and platform literacy
  • Popular industry mapping
  • Programming and mediation
  • Archive and rights documentation
  • CineUbuntu debate design

Audience

Who this course is for

Learners studying recent African films, series and screen industries.
Programmers, critics and researchers building contemporary African cinema cycles.
CineUbuntu members preparing discussions around platforms, audiences and new subjectivities.
Filmmakers and producers interested in festivals, streaming, genre, archives and circulation.

Module outline

Follow the course pathway module by module

Use this page to understand the sequence, checkpoints and learning rhythm before opening a specific module.

Module 1

What Is Contemporary African Cinema?

The opening module defines contemporary African cinema through historical period, method, digital shifts, festivals, platforms, popular industries, diasporas, archives and publics.

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Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Defining the Contemporary: Period, Method, Criteria and Pitfalls

Goal: Define the contemporary as a method, not only as a date range.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0260 min

Lesson 2

Industrial Mutations: Digital, Festivals, Platforms and Markets

Goal: Understand how digital production, festivals, platforms and markets reshape African screen ecosystems.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

Mapping Forms: Auteurs, Popular Industries, Diasporas, Archives and Publics

Goal: Map contemporary African cinema as a field of multiple forms and publics.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Define the contemporary through period, method, criteria, industrial change and plural screen forms.

Module 2

New Auteurs, Festivals and International Recognition

This module studies new auteurs, festival ecosystems, market visibility, international recognition and the tension between global prestige and local access.

Not started

Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Festival Ecosystems: Recognition, Market, Auteur and Visibility

Goal: Understand how festivals produce recognition, markets, auteurs and visibility.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0260 min

Lesson 2

Mapping Contemporary Filmmakers: Trajectories, Forms and Key Works

Goal: Build a map of contemporary filmmakers through trajectories, forms and reference works.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

Ambivalences of Recognition: Local Access, Expectations, Firsts and Mediation

Goal: Analyze recognition as both opportunity and constraint.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Analyze festival ecosystems, contemporary filmmakers, visibility and the ambivalence of recognition.

Module 3

Popular Industries, Nollywood, YouTube, Series and Platforms

This module studies contemporary popular industries, from Nollywood to Kannywood, Kumawood, Riverwood, Bongo Movies, series, YouTube and streaming platforms.

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Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Contemporary Nollywood: Models, Genres, Publics and Economy

Goal: Analyze Nollywood through production models, genres, audiences and economic logic.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0260 min

Lesson 2

Beyond Lagos: Kannywood, Kumawood, Riverwood, Bongo Movies and Series

Goal: Recognize African popular industries beyond a Lagos-only framework.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

YouTube, Streaming, Algorithms, Data, Archives and Sustainability

Goal: Analyze how platforms shape visibility, data, revenue, archives and durability.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Study Nollywood, regional industries, YouTube, streaming, algorithms, archives and sustainability.

Module 4

Genres, Futurities, Hybrid Documentary and Experimental Forms

This module studies contemporary form through genre, futurity, hybrid documentary, reconstruction, performance, archive work, art video, music and transmedia.

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Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Genres and Futurities: Science Fiction, Afrofuturisms and Social Fantasy

Goal: Analyze speculative forms as ways to imagine politics, memory and future worlds.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
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0260 min

Lesson 2

Hybrid Documentary: Reenactment, Performance, Archives and Restitution

Goal: Study hybrid documentary as a contemporary form of memory and restitution.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

Experimental Forms: Music, Video Art, Installation, Performance and Transmedia

Goal: Analyze contemporary moving-image practices beyond conventional cinema formats.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Analyze science fiction, afrofuturisms, social fantasy, hybrid documentary, performance, archives, music, installation and transmedia.

Module 5

Politics, Memory, Ecology, Gender, Cities and New Subjectivities

This module studies how contemporary films stage politics through everyday life, bodies, families, cities, water, work, sexuality, memory, colonial inheritance and threatened futures.

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Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Memory, Restitution, Trauma and Colonial Inheritances

Goal: Analyze memory and restitution as contemporary political and cinematic problems.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0260 min

Lesson 2

Ecology, Water, Land, Labor and Extraction

Goal: Study ecology as lived material condition, not only environmental theme.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

Gender, Cities, Youth, Queer Cinema and New Subjectivities

Goal: Analyze how contemporary films represent youth, gender, urban life, desire and new forms of subjectivity.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Analyze contemporary politics through memory, restitution, ecology, labor, gender, queer cinema, cities, youth and new subjectivities.

Module 6

Programming, Analyzing and Transmitting Contemporary African Cinema

The final module turns contemporary cinema knowledge into a cycle of films, critical dossier, mediation strategy, rights sheet, scene analysis, public discussion and pedagogical transmission.

Not started

Duration

3 hours

Lessons

3

Completed

0/3

Module progress0%
0160 min

Lesson 1

Programming a Contemporary Cycle without Reducing the Works

Goal: Create a contemporary African cinema program with complexity, balance and mediation.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0260 min

Lesson 2

Analyzing and Documenting: Critical Dossier, Shot Atlas, CineMap, Rights and Archives

Goal: Document contemporary films through critical analysis, scene evidence, locations, rights and archive status.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
0360 min

Lesson 3

Transmitting: Mediation, CineUbuntu Debate, Unga Festival and Final Project

Goal: Transmit contemporary African cinema through public debate, education, festival preparation and final project delivery.

2 reading sections2 quiz questions1 resources
Not startedOpen lesson
View module Build a professional project through programming, critical dossier, mediation, rights, archives, platforms, publics, CineMap, Shot Atlas and Unga Festival.