For the purposes of this guide, the states South of the Sahara include the countries formed from the colonies of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa: Benin (formerly Dahomey), Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, and Congo; as well as the two West African states (former German colonies, then French protectorates) Togo and Cameroon.

Search with Subject Headings in the Library Catalogue

1. Go to UTL LibrarySearch Advanced Search
2. Enter any of the Subject Heading found below exactly as it appears in the Search Box 
3. Choose Subject from the Search Filters drop-down menu on the left
4. Press Enter or click on the Magnifying Glass icon

For additional information on subject headings in LibrarySearch, visit How can I use subject headings to improve my searching?

Subject Headings 

Interdisciplinary databases

• Google Scholar (incl. substantial film content)
• ProQuest (incl. substantial film content)
• JSTOR
• Project MUSE
• African Research Online (Brill)
  • Access to both Africa Yearbook Online and African Studies Companion Online.

Film-specific databases

• The American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog covers the history of American cinema comprehensively from 1893 to 1975, with full or short records for films from 1976 to present. Use the AFI Catalog to find detailed production information about specific films (incl. release dates and other production-related information), as well as citations to contemporaneous reviews from newspapers (e.g., New York Times); trade & industry publications (Variety); popular magazines (Motion Picture Herald, Photoplay); and review publications (Monthly Film Bulletin), among others.
  Note: There are no direct links to online content from the AFI Catlog. See How to Find Journal Articles below, for instructions on how to use a citation to find a journal article.

• Film Index International (British Film Institute). Coverage: 1900 - current. The directors selected for inclusion are a) those who have made a fiction film shown theatrically that is over 50 minutes in duration, released between 1928 and 1965, and b) those who have made a fiction film over 60 minutes in duration, post-1965.
  Note: There are no direct links to online content from Film Index International. See How to Find Journal Articles below, for instructions on how to use a citation to find a journal article.
• International Index to Film Periodicals (1972+) Search by keyword, separating each word or phrase by AND
• Film & Television Literature Index (1913-current)
• Film Literature Index (1976-2001).

Journals

Bibliographies

Bibliographies are curated lists of resources on particular topics. You will need to look up the resources in UTL Catalogue, the Internet, or contact the Cinema Studies Librarian for help.

• Oxford Bibliographies 
  • African Cinema and Television (James M. Burns, 2019, Oxford Bibliographies)
  • African Cinema (Frank Ukadike, 2013, Oxford Bibliographies)
  • African Studies (Oxford Bibliographies)  Annotated bibliographies organized by Topics, Locations, and Languages
• African Women in Cinema Index, Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema
• African Cinema and African Cinematic Representation
  • UC Berkeley Library's bibliography was archived in August 2018 and accessed through Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
• Ways of Seeing (in) African Cinema panel (from TIFF-Higher Learning, Archived via Wayback Machine)
  • Filmography, Selected Bibliography, Glossary of Terms and Filmmakers, Web Resources

SEE ALSO:

African Cinema (Vol 1-3), in Studies in the Cinema of the Black Diaspora Series

• Martin, Michael T., et al. African Cinema : Manifesto and Practice for Cultural Decolonization / Volume 1: Colonial Antecedents, Constituents, Theory, and Articulations. Edited by Gaston Jean-Marie Kaboré, First edition., Indiana University Press, 2023. Ebook & Print
• Martin, Michael T., and Gaston Kaboré, editors. African Cinema : Manifesto and Practice for Cultural Decolonization. Volume 2, FESPACO - Formation, Evolution, Challenges. Indiana University Press, 2023. Ebook & Print
• Martin, Michael T., et al. African Cinema : Manifesto and Practice for Cultural Decolonization: Volume 3: The Documentary Record—Declarations, Resolutions, Manifestos, Speeches. Edited by Gaston Jean-Marie Kaboré, First edition., Indiana University Press, 2023.

Armes, Roy. Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University Press, 2008. Ebook & Print

Africa Online Digital Library: A portal to multimedia collections about Africa. MATRIX, working in cooperation with the African Studies Center at Michigan State University, is partnering with universities and cultural heritage organizations in Africa to build this resource.