An Accented Cinema : Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking

by Hamid Naficy

In An Accented Cinema , Hamid Naficy offers an engaging overview of an important trend--the filmmaking of postcolonial, Third World, and other displaced individuals living in the West. How their personal experiences of exile or diaspora translate into cinema is a key focus of Naficy's work. Although the experience of expatriation varies greatly from one person to the next, the films themselves exhibit stylistic similarities, from their open- and closed-form aesthetics to their nostalgic and memory-driven multilingual narratives, and from their emphasis on political agency to their concern with identity and transgression of identity. The author explores such features while considering the specific histories of individuals and groups that engender divergent experiences, institutions, and modes of cultural production and consumption. Treating creativity as a social practice, he demonstrates that the films are in dialogue not only with the home and host societies but also with audiences, many of whom are also situated astride cultures and whose desires and fears the filmmakers wish to express.


Comparing these films to Hollywood films, Naficy calls them "accented." Their accent results from the displacement of the filmmakers, their alternative production modes, and their style. Accented cinema is an emerging genre, one that requires new sets of viewing skills on the part of audiences. Its significance continues to grow in terms of output, stylistic variety, cultural diversity, and social impact. This book offers the first comprehensive and global coverage of this genre while presenting a framework in which to understand its intricacies.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Academia

392 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2001

Reviews

[Jud :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interessant!

[Andrew Hathaway · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot to take in here, and Hamid Naficy's more academically-oriented writing style makes this a text just for the interested. But for those of you who take the plunge there is mountains of great information in the book with complex examinations of the effect displacement, due to war / economy / etc., has on those who produce cinema. The side-sections analyzing the subculture from each group were my favorites part of the book, especially since the economics going into forming and sustaining these unique cinematic circles is not analyzed very often. A great read for those wanting to broaden their cinematic horizons by a large factor, or are interested in the way the wars and turmoil of the 20th century produced this disparate style of film.

[Nader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.