Ousmane Sembene's cinema - Essay Example

In films such as Ceddo and Xala he pointed an irate, often ironic finger at the failures and extremes of contemporary African governments. (Scott, 2007) ''''''Sembene believed that most of the African post-colonial states had failed to meet the expectations that their populace initially related with autonomy from colonial rule. For many African people the official end of colonial rule did not generate an end to social injustice and radical economic imbalance. Sembene's work was dominated by a desire to spell out what he thought was going wrong with his society.

He made a critical examination of post-colonial African society neither beautifying nor discrediting them, but simply depicting a reality in which the intercession of the critic comes as an effort to objectively consider problems that are of critical import to contemporary African nations. In a dialogue with Francoise Pfaff (1984), Sembene said that "I have never tried to please my audience through the embellishment of reality. I am a participant and an observer of my society" ''''''Cinema has been divided into three groups commonly known as first, second and third cinema.

This terminology was established at the Bandung Conference of 1955(the first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement). China promulgated the premise of the three distinctive economic worlds. The first world inclusive of the superior capitalist countries like Western Europe, North America and Australasia; the second world comprising of the prior socialist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The left over countries were accordingly the third world, to which China confirmed its commitment.

(Chanan, 1997)'''''''First Cinema refers the form recognized as the Hollywood movie, where cinema is pure entertainment. The primary aim of first cinema is to maximize profits. All types of films appear under this classification; feature, short and educational films, even scientific documentary is inclined to the aspirations capitalism. Second Cinema is also known as parallel cinema. Parallel cinema has its own structure, pattern of distribution and exhibition, and its own ideology. Nowadays parallel cinema is made by and for limited social groups.

It articulates the desires and ideology of the middle layers or the petty bourgeoisie and as a result is often radical but pessimist and at times mystical. Similar to first cinema all types of films may be found in this group.Third cinema''''''There is a deliberate imprecision in the term 'Third Cinema' which requires clarification. The term 'Third Cinema' is derived from the correlation with the term 'third world'. The third world consists of the underdeveloped nations of Asia, Africa and South America.

In the developing countries, third cinema is concerned with the problems of de-colonisation, propagates national liberation. Third cinema tries to debunk old myths, eradicate racism and dissolve economic hierarchies.''''''Originally typical third cinema included radical political views that were usually hostile to the regime and signification of the concerned images. Militant cinema in which the camera is often equated to the gun was also a form of third cinema. Militant cinema required the film crew to operate with a drastic and original notion not