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Message from: owner-african-cinema-conference@xc.org (african-cinema-conference@xc.org)
About: FW: QUERY: Films and periodical

Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:00:15 -0700 (PDT)

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    Originally from: <owner-african-cinema-conference@xc.org>
    Originally dated: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 06:00:15 -0700 (PDT)

    Xposted from H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU <mailto:H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
    <mailto:H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU <mailto:H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU> >
    Subject: Re: QUERY: Films and periodical
    From: Ken Harrow
    <harrow@pilot.msu.edu <mailto:harrow@pilot.msu.edu
    <mailto:harrow@pilot.msu.edu> > >
    Date: Wed 17 June 1998, 10:33 am

    How can anyone really believe that this is the case? Films rented as videos
    from California Newsreel, for example, are clearly for groups-usually
    college groups. Sembene makes tons more by restricting the rentals of his
    films to 16mm, and his popularity insures that there is a market. If he
    seriously wanted his films to be available to groups, he would have arranged
    a distribution agreement in which the prices were reasonably priced. ken
    harrow At 11:50 AM 6/17/98 -0500, you wrote:
    From: Cynthia Ward
    <cward@hawaii.edu <mailto:cward@hawaii.edu <mailto:cward@hawaii.edu>
    > >
    Date: Tue 16 June 1998, 12:53 pm

    It's my understanding that Sembene doesn't want his films viewed in
    isolation but to be viewed, as much as possible, in the context of a group
    of people as a shared experience-and prohibiting videos is a way of insuring
    group-viewing. It is a position I can understand and respect, given his
    reasons for shifting from writing novels to directing movies. At the risk of
    overgeneralizing, in Africa, art means little in isolation; its function is
    primarily social rather than psychological.
    Cynthia Ward
    University of Hawai'i Manoa
    From: Ken Harrow
    <harrow@pilot.msu.edu <mailto:harrow@pilot.msu.edu
    <mailto:harrow@pilot.msu.edu> > >
    Date: Wed 17 June 1998, 10:29 am

    I cannot believe for a moment that a tape in PAL cannot be legally
    transformed into NTSC. There may be legal constraints on distribution within
    a given country, but the format is not the same thing. It is like saying you
    can't play a certain type of record in a given country. That is nonsense.
    All that is needed to play a video is a VCR that plays PAL. I have a
    multisystem VCR, as do lots of folks, with which I have copied tons of films
    into NTSC, the American system, and I intend to continue doing so.
    On a different note, I recently purchased my latest Beyala
    novel, _La Negresse rousse_, published in September
    1997 by J'Ai Lu. To my surprise, I noticed that it began
    with the same text as _Seul le diable le savait_, and in fact
    was the same novel. Looking inside the cover, one notes a
    list of
    Beyala novels that includes all the novels published until
    1996, except _Seul le diable le savait_. Turning another
    page one finds, in small print at the bottom of the page a
    note indicating that this is a reprinting of _Seul le diable._
    It is amazing that we worry about showing films in PAL format, while a
    publisher can change the title of a novel, hide the fact that it had earlier
    been published under a different title, repackage it completely and then
    sell it. I did not ask to get my money back... I hope this will keep some
    of the readers of the list from getting ripped off.
    ken harrow



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