Cinéma-monde : de-orbiting Maghrebi cinema

Abstract

This article proposes to ask and possibly start to answer a series of questions: What on earth is cinema-monde? How useful is it as a descriptor for the study of postcolonial cinemas in former French colonies? How different is it from cinemas du monde, the French translation for “World Cinema”? The term cinema-monde was first coined by two French political scientists, Josepha Laroche and Alexandre Bohas, to describe the context against which the French encrypted TV channel Canal + developed. Their stark expose on the film production of the world at the hands of a happy few is sobering, as they dissect the very notion of cinema-monde under the lens of the economy of globalization and late capitalism. In 2012, the term pops up again, invoked this time by francophone specialist Bill Marshall in his article “Cinema-monde? Towards a concept of Francophone Cinema.” Here it appears as an ambiguous appellation to designate “francophone cinema” that Marshall examines closely yet eventually puts aside. The differen...