From: Prema Qadir
To: scs
Subject: Re: NY Times article on FESPACO
Date: Tuesday, 25 March, 1997 8:03AM
At 10:19 AM 3/24/97 PST, you wrote:
>Originally from: <owner-african-cinema-conference@xc.org>
>Originally dated: Mon, 24 Mar 97 10:19:00 PST
>
>I'm not sure of copyright rules, so I'll just summarize a bit and if anyone
>wants a hard copy of the full article, please contact me
=======
Aloha Steve,
I'd like a copy of the article, please.
I have commented further, below:
=======
>One positive trend maybe is Idrissa Ouedraogo's latest film made in English
>in Zimbabwe. Maybe there is a "growing consciousness among French-speaking
>filmmakers of the need to break out of a cozy but ultimately narrow
market."
Great!!!! And I thought is was good what the young man representing
"Everyone's Child" said before the viewing of the movie. He made the point
that Pan-African means *all* of Africa. He didn't apologize for the film
being in English, I thought that was pretty brave in a room full of
French-speaking persons.
Both the French and the English colonized parts of Africa. I am not
sympathetic to either domain. My only interest in helping to promote
English language African films is that it makes the films available to a
wider audience.
It was really strange to watch so many films which were typically
spoken/sub-titled in either Tribal Languages or French. I missed a lot of
meaning which could not be communicated through action.
Whenever there was a film which was spoken/sub-titled in English, I really
had a good experience because I understood more. And my attention was more
available to consume the production value of the films.
France dominated the festival in a lot of ways. I thought it interesting
how the French-speaking audience would hiss when a film was presented in
English (spoken/sub-titled). The energy in the theater at the start of
such movies was very unsettling. Frequently, French-speaking people would
get up and leave.
=======
>Mr French notes that the potential threat of South Africa dominating
African
>cinema hasn't happened. In fact there were no films from Nigeria, Kenya or
>Ghana. Where are the English films in this pan-African festival?
I wish that "dominance" would drop dead. I was at FESPACO to see African
films not African-films-dominated-by-anybody! This language thing is a
barrier to communication. We need a new system for sub-titling movies. We
need a system which offers the language of your choice.
Also, I was disappointed that Ghana did not have a film entry! There is a
film school in Ghana. I have a friend there. The television industry is
alive in Ghana too..... but, I didn't get to hang-out at MICA long enough
to find any Ghanaian TV products.
>=====
>Does anyone know what the rules are about me having this article typed in
>and then posting it on the listserver?
There still aren't enough lawyers in the world to prosecute you for
reprinting an article. My advice is to go ahead and present the article
here, with a disclaimer. As long as you are doing it for
*informational/educational* purposes who would feel threatened?
I say PRINT IT!
forward!
love, prema = 8< )
+++
Evoke beauty, truth, light and love.... peace!
Prema Qadir, B.S.C.E. = 8< )
Adgrafix Account Executive
http://www.adgrafix.com/info/pqadir/
Web Site Manager - Virtual Server System & Software
==================
ALSO - I got the following couple points on the subject:
1. The NYTimes is on the web. It could be that this article is totally
reprinted and on the web. Check and see if French's article is there, and
if so, that's where we could all look (rather than reprinting it and
worrying about copyright.)
O.F. Makarah
2. from D Paterson:
Here's what they say about copying their articles from AOL:
To reproduce material from The New York Times that you've seen on @times on
AOL, you'll need permission from The Times.
You may write or fax the Rights and Permissions department of The Times for
reprint rights:
The New York Times
Rights and Permissions--9th Floor
229 West 43d Street
New York, NY 10036
Fax: (212) 556-1629
Be sure to include the following information:
--author's name
--headline
--general subject matter of the article
--the date the article appeared in The Times or in @times on AOL.
For the quickest response from the Rights and Permissions department, do not
e-mail your inquiry through any of the email addresses provided on this
site,
but write or fax as noted above.
So, I'll try to find it on the NY Times WWW site and get their permission to
repeat the article. But in the mean time, I'll send Prema a hard copy by
snail mail. If anyone else wants a copy please contact me, Steve Smith
scs@dsr.us.net
In-Reply-To: 199703262246.OAA06875@abraham.xc.org