MOZAMBIQUE - Much to his surprise, the film journalist and historian Guido Convents was told by Portuguese journalists in 2006 that there was and is no film culture or film production of any significance in Mozambique. Also in the Belgian film world, no one seemed to have an idea of what should be understood by film in Mozambique.
His first idea was to write an article about current film production and film culture in the country. He discovered not only an enormously rich and dynamic film culture, but also a Mozambican film world that is fighting for its survival in this global world. During his research, he also found one of the oldest films that were shot in Mozambique. It turned out to be a Belgian film from 1920. The Liege filmmaker Ernest Gourdinne had made it for the Belgian and British financial world. Film turned out to appear regularly in Belgian Mozambican relations! As in his previous publications in which he explored film culture in Congo, Rwanda and Burund, Convents not only paid attention to the contemporary film scene, but went back to its roots. He researched the way in which Mozambicans appropriated film as an emancipating medium and today consider it important for the social development of the country.
MAGAZINE (in Dutch)
- Film cultuur in Mozambique (1896-1975), Cinemagie 267, 2010.
- Film cultuur in Mozambique (1975 -2010), Cinemagie 271, 2010.
BOOK (in Portuguese)
- Title: IMAGENS & REALIDADE - Moçambicanos perante o cinema e o audiovisual.
- Subtitle: Uma história política-cultural do Moçambique colonial até a República de Moçambique (1896-2010)’
- Author: Guido Convents
- Editor: Dockanema (Maputo)/ AFF (Leuven)
- Date of publications: april 2011
- Pages: 670 pag.
- ISBN : 9 789899 726208
BOOK PRESENTATION
- On 21 November 2011 the book was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts (Bozar) in Brussels as part of 10 years of cooperation between Flanders and Mozambique.