Angolan Cinema

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Though Angola gained its independence from Portugal in 1975, along with the other Lusophone African countries, film played an important role in the development of a national culture before the date of official independence. Most critics identify the origins of Angolan cinema as linked to the liberation wars of the mid-twentieth century. Claire Andrade-Watkins cites Argentine filmmakers and theorists Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino’s manifesto “Toward a Third Cinema” (1969) as a foundational document that helped define and motivate Lusophone Africa’s pro-liberation and “guerrilla” filmmaking in the 1970s (178-79). These early films included newsreels, documentaries, and some fiction films, and generally served the purposes of both exposing colonial atrocities and explaining…

4073 words

Citation: Millar, Lanie. "Angolan Cinema". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19579, accessed 23 November 2024.]

19579 Angolan Cinema 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.