Description
Book SynopsisThis book shines much-needed light on the history, structures and films of the Amharic film industry in Ethiopia. Focusing on the rise of the industry from 2002, until today, and embedded in archival, ethnographic and textual research methods, this book offers a sustained and detailed appreciation of Amharic-language cinema. Michael Thomas considers ''fiker''/love as an organising principle in national Ethiopian culture and, by extension, Amharic cinema. Placing ''fiker'' as central to understanding Amharic film genres also illuminates the continuous negotiations at play between romantic, familial, patriotic and spiritual notions of love in these films. Thomas considers the production and exhibition of films in Ethiopia, charting fluctuations and continuities between the past and the present. Having done so, he offers detailed textual readings of films, identifying important junctures in the industry's development and the emergence of new genres. The findings of the book detail the aff
Trade ReviewMichael W. Thomas gives a detailed first-hand account of Ethiopian cinema in compelling detail ... an excellent read written in simple structure, yet sophisticated in its insider knowledge * Journal of African Cinemas *
This book provides an engaged and located history of Amharic language Ethiopian cinema. Thomas pays attention to the materiality and socio-political contexts of cinema-going cultures and complicates our understanding of the ways in which audiences engage with and debate genre. -- Carli Coetzee, University of Oxford, UK
There are no words to express how much I enjoyed reading
Popular Ethiopian Cinema! It is one of the greatest books, not only about the Ethiopian film industry but of pan-African cinema as a whole. Michael W. Thomas provides invaluable insight into Ethiopian filmmakers and their struggle, ideology, aesthetics and social values. -- Endalegeta Kebede, former Cultural Officer for the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, Ethiopia.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Courting and the Curiosity of Cinema in Addis Ababa PART 1: THE HISTORY 1: Film Exhibition in Ethiopia 2: Film Production in Ethiopia PART 2: THE FILMS 3: The “yefiker film/love film” 4: The Rise of the “assikiñ yefiker film/humorous love film” 5: Violence and Order in the “lib anteltay film/suspense film” 6: The Absence of Romance and the “yebeteseb film/family film” PART 3: THE INDUSTRY 7: Promoting Amharic Film Genres 8: Producing Amharic Film Genres 9: Perceiving Amharic Film Genres Conclusion: Of Fiker and Film Bibliography
