Sonic Space in Djibril Diop Mambety's Films [Paperback]

The art of Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambetys cinema lies in the tension created between the visual narrative and the aural narrative. His work has been considered hugely influential, and his films bridge Western practices of filmmaking and oral traditions from West Africa. Mambetys film Touki Bouki is considered one of the foundational works of African cinema. Vlad Dima proposes a new reading of Mambetys entire filmography from the perspective of sound. Following recent analytical patterns in film studies that challenge the primacy of the visual, Dima claims that Mambety uses voices, noise, and silence as narrative tools that generate their own stories and sonic spaces. By turning an ear to cinema, Dima pushes African aesthetics to the foreground of artistic creativity and focuses on the critical importance of sound in world cinema.

[A]s the first monograph to focus on listening to a body of cinematic work from the African continent, Dimas book makes an undeniably welcome contribution, adding useful new critical concepts. African cinema has on the whole received short shrift from screen sound and music studies, a state of affairs the book clearly demonstrates is unjust. By focusing on Mambetys often radical use of sound, Dima argues forcefully that this rich and innovative body of work needs to play a far more central role in our understanding of the ways in which sound and image operate.This sophisticated and in-depth analysis aptly demonstrates Vlad Dimas grasp of the contentious issues surrounding Mamb?tys film legacy as well as the overall perspectives on the degree to which Third Cinema and revolutionary filmmaking fit within an analysis of the Senegalese directors oeuvre.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Aural Contexts
1. Aural Space and the Sonic Rack Focus in Touki Bouki
2. Fl?neur, Geography and cam?ra-fl?neur in Badou-Boy and Contras' City
3. Trauma and Zombie Narratives in Hy?nes
4. Voice(s) in Le Franc and La Petite veló