The Materiality of Genre: Analog and Digital Ghosts in Video Movies from Ghana Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractThis article discusses three representative examples of one particular genre, the Ghanaian ghost movie, to look closely at the creation and evolution of the figure of the ghost in analog and digital video environments. The larger aim is to expand our understanding of African movie genres by accounting for their technological and material dimensions. In Ghana, the earliest ghost movies, here represented byGhost Tears(Socrate Safo, 1992) andSuzzy(Veronica Cudjoe, 1993), relied on analog visual effects to render the ghost as a visual trace of violence. Appearing almost a decade later,The Chase(Jon Gil, 2011) is noteworthy because it stretches the boundaries of the genre considerably. Jon Gil, the director and producer of the film, exploits digital tools to transform the ghost into a horrifying, multisensory experience; the ghost is felt as a disembodied, affective shock. In both cases, the ghost reflects back on its technological context in unanticipated ways.

published proceedings

  • CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF POSTCOLONIAL LITERARY INQUIRY

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Garritano, C.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

  • Garritano, Carmela

publication date

  • January 2017