AFRO@DIGITAL: An African Look at Digital Technology

  • Afro@digital
Genre : Social
Type : Documentary
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2002
Format : Mid-length
Running time : 52 (in minutes)

¿Cuáles son los cambios económicos y socioculturales que aportan las herramientas de la tecnología digital al desarrollo en África? Este documental ofrece un balance actual acerca del uso de las nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación : internet, telefonía móvil, satélite, televisión y cine. Descripción de los cambios profundos de la sociedad africana y de las confrontaciones creativas consecuencia del uso de las técnicas digitales.


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The 52-minute documentary explores how digital technology has changed the lives of Africans and raises challenging questions about the use of technology in fashion, music, film, television, research, politics, and governance and in documenting humanity's memory. Asks important questions about how digital technology is being utilized in Africa today and how it might be used in the service of African peoples tomorrow. Afro@Digital begins with a provocative question: "Why speak of new technologies on a continent which wakes up and goes to sleep to the terrorism of poverty?" In other words, how can Africa escape the logic of poverty and unequal development by making sure that digital technology doesn't pass it by, become an agent of neo-colonialism or marginalize it still further? The documentary asserts that computing technology may in fact be indigenous to Africa. The new field of ethno-mathematics has discovered the oldest calculating tool in the world in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. Named the'Ishango bone' after its place of origin, it uses a base twelve system devised 15,000 years before the construction of the pyramids. Despite the relative scarcity of computers on the continent, the largest source of coltan, a product used in most microprocessors, is the Congo.


Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, Congo/France, 2002, 52m., color.
In English, French, Jula and Yoruba with English subtitles

Year: 2002 - Length: 52 minutes - Genre: Documentary

AWARDS
* Mention of the Jury. Zimbabwe International Film Festival. Harare, Zimbabwe. 2004.

Articles

4 files

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

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