Technique & African Aesthetic
Shahadah is seen as one of the next generation of African Diaspora filmmakers, who draws from the masters of African cinema. Shahadah believes that Africans must develop an authentic African aesthetic and bring this into film culture. He also stresses that all art in the traditional African senses is socially functional. As a filmmaker he is noted for emphasizing music to film synchronization. He stresses that African film, like African music (both of the continent and the Diaspora), has a rhythm which is the fundamental inner harmony that sets up a unique African sensibility. His documentaries never use narration and are driven my music, strong flashing images set to music and spoken word and rich color. Unique in documentary Shahadah uses heavy dramatic film scores, typical of epic movies. He says his films are a four part harmony of information produced by images, music, text and dialog. For Motherland Shahadah claims he created a new way of mixing music in Dolby 5.1 called split positioning.
He approaches cinema from a jazz paradigm and states: "If you want to understand the concept of a paradigm shift go and study jazz; it is the most perfect example of an African aesthetic. Because it has agency it can absorbs worldly influences but still expresses an African sensibility. Like a language, jazz is grammatically Africa while its lexicon is varied."
Read more about this topic: Owen 'Alik Shahadah
Famous quotes containing the words technique, african and/or aesthetic:
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)
“I always draw a parallel between oppression by the regime and oppression by men. To me it is just the same. I always challenge men on why they react to oppression by the regime, but then they do exactly the same things to women that they criticize the regime for.”
—Sethembile N., South African black anti-apartheid activist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 19, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
“For it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)