Geographical Perspective
Our unit begins by examining how filmmakers treat Africa and Africans. To set this segment in motion, students will be given several variations of maps that can be accessed online or in recent magazines. Students will learn that Africa is a continent, not a country, so that upon viewing films they will be able to associate land mass and space in accordance to the most recent parameters as designated by political circumstances of the nations. In addition to the study of geography in Africa, students will become familiar with African-American migration patterns in the States, specifically Black movement from the South to the North after slavery.
The beauty and splendor of the lands in Africa is often captured cinematically for purposes of setting the stage for mise-en-scène, and to display the land as a place of wonderment and grace. On the other hand, filmmakers have tended to span the land, and then bring the camera's focus to the villages. Sometimes the focal pinpoint is that of a poor ethnic group of people. The opposite of such elegiac shots can be found in high-energy urban films that offer a hustling and bustling city contrasted to the old way of the village. A viewer experiences emotion when taken across the landscape from wide to narrow and then across from the dramatic change of spatial differences of landscape variety, ethnic group panoramas and living style fashions.
With this addition to geography, objectives will be met are in accordance to state curricular standards. Students will receive an overview on how to read a map, how to determine places and regions specified by maps. They will note the interactions between people and places in accordance to the region in which groups have been found to reside. These aspects of study are most important in reference to African trends as viewed in film from Francophone West Africa. Students will be asked to further their inquiry through basic geographical literacy while visiting museums and having guests visit the classroom for further discussion. Use of these resources will expand student knowledge of facts in conjunction with the fictional uses of landscape and imagery.
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