PDF Spaces of Conflict; Sounds of Solidarity: Music; Race; and Spatial Entitlement in Los Angeles by Gaye Theresa Johnson in History

Description

Tracing the rise and development of the Ghanaian video film industry between 1985 and 2010; Sensational Movies examines video movies as seismographic devices recording a culture and society in turmoil. This book captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the medium’s technological; economic; social; cultural; and religious aspects. Stepping into the void left by the defunct state film industry; video movies negotiate the imaginaries deployed by state cinema on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Birgit Meyer analyzes Ghanaian video as a powerful; sensational form. Colliding with the state film industry’s representations of culture; these movies are indebted to religious notions of divination and revelation. Exploring the format of “film as revelation;” Meyer unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult. In this brilliant study; Meyer offers a deep; conceptually innovative analysis of the role of visual culture within the politics and aesthetics of religious world making.