[T]his is a useful study of French West African cinema pioneers and their times. It illuminates the institutional and structural obstacles that stood between the filmmakers' vision of a new cinematic art and their intended audiences. It also highlights their resistance to pressure from colonial and postcolonial governments to put their artistic skills at the service of venal political regimes. As such, it will prove of value to historians and film scholars interested in this crucial period in the history of African cinema.

American Historical Review

Genova's book not only asserts a fundamental relationship between European colonial and African post-colonial cinema, it asserts that it is precisely because the first generation of African filmmakers knew and understood colonial cinema, and its place in colonial doctrine and practice that they sought to bring their revolutionary ideology and poetics to cinema.

International Journal of African Historical Studies

Overall, Cinema and Development in West Africa is a welcome addition to cinema scholarship. . . . [Genova's] historical approach illuminates the enduring importance of political and economic dynamics not yet fully explored in the study of African cinema. Genova's book is a useful contribution to the vast and growing field of African cinema.

Africa

6.3 Sept. 2014

Journal of African Media Studies