Josef Gugler African and Middle Eastern Film Collection, 1947-2013
A Guide to His Holdings at the Indiana University Black Film
Center/Archive
Finding aid prepared by BFC/A Staff
Summary Information
Repository
Indiana
University Black Film Center/Archive
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-6041
Fax: 812-856-5832
Email: bfca@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/~bfca
Creator
Gugler,
Josef
TitleJosef Gugler African and Middle Eastern
Film Collection, 1947-2013
Collection No.
COL 12
Extent
12 boxes + 1149
posters + 416 audiovisual recordings
Language
Materials are in multiple languages, predominantly French, English, and German, but
also Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and various other European and Asian
languages.
Abstract
The Josef Gugler collection consists of
promotional materials for films produced in or directed by filmmakers from Africa and
the Middle East. Over 500 unique films by approximately 350 film directors are
represented. Formats include film posters, pressbooks, chirashi flyers, lobby and
storefront cards, handbills, photographs, slides, and audiovisual recordings.
Access Restrictions
The materials in this collection are open to the public.
Biographical History
In summer 2015 University of Connecticut Professor Emeritus Josef Gugler donated his
collection of research materials related to African and Middle Eastern film to the
BFC/A. Much of Gugler’s research and the resulting publications have focused on issues
arising from the urbanization of developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Since 1961 he has performed research or served as a visiting lecturer/professor
in Nigeria, Tanzania, the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Senegal.
In 1991 Gugler began teaching a course called "Modern Africa: Re-Imaging Africa through
Films and Novels" at the University of Connecticut. The posters, films, videos, and
other promotional materials donated to the BFC/A served to support his research and
coursework on African film and led to the publication of his African Film: Re-Imaging a
Continent (Indiana University Press 1993, reprinted 2003). Later, Gugler's research
interests in international film expanded to North Africa and the Middle East. Additional
publications related to Gugler’s work on African film and his more recent exploration of
Middle Eastern film are listed below.
Gugler's awards and honors include and a senior fellowship from the American Institute
of Indian Studies (1980-1981), a Choice Outstanding Academic Book award for
The Urban Transformation of the Developing World (1997), a
National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant for Monibo A. Sam (1997), and grants from
Cologne University and the French Government (1957-1958), the German Research
Association (1961-1963, 1987-1991), the University of Connecticut Research Foundation
(1969-2001), and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the State Deparment
(2001-2004).
Josef Gugler Partial Curriculum Vitae
2010 |
Member of the jury for fiction films at PanAfrica International,
Montreal
|
2001--2004 |
Grant for linkage between the University of Connecticut and the Ecole
Nationale d’Economie Appliquée, Senegal, from the Bureau of Educational and
Cutlural Affairs of the State Department
|
1989 |
Research on urbanization in Kenya |
1987 |
Research on urbanization in Nigeria |
1964--1970 |
Lecturer, then Director of Sociological Research (Makerere Institute of Social
Research) at Makerere University College (Uganda); Research on ubanization in
Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania
|
1968 |
Visiting Professor at Lovanium University Kinshasa (Congo); Visiting Senior
Lecturer at the University College, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
|
1961--1963 |
Research in Nigeria, Cologne, and Lond on urbanization in Nigeria |
1959 |
Dr. rer. pol. (Ph.D. in Socology), University of Cologne, Germany |
1955 |
Diplomvolkswirt (M.A. in Economics), LMU Munich University, Germany |
Josef Gugler's Publications on Film
Ten Arab Filmmakers: Political Dissent and Social
Critique,
edited by Josef Gugler. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
2015.
Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative
Dissidence,
edited by Josef Gugler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
Cairo: American University in Cairo Press. 2011.
"African Films in the Classroom"
African Studies
Review
53 (3): 1-17, 2010.
"Ali Zaoua: The Harsh Life of Street Children and the
Poetics of Childhood"
Journal of North African Studies
12 (3): 369-379, 2007. Reprinted pages 93-103 in North African Cinema in a Global
Context: Through the Lens of Diaspora, edited by Andrea Khalil, London / New York:
Routledge, 2008.
"Cinema of Revolution," pages 139-153 in
Revolutionary
Movements in World History: From 1750 to the Present,
edited by James V.
Defronzo, Santa Barbara / Denver / Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
"Fiction, Fact, and the Responsibility of the Critic:
Camp
de Thiaroye, Yaaba, and The Gods Must Be Crazy,"
pages 69-85 in
Focus on African Film, edited by Françoise Pfaff,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent, Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, Cape Town: David Philip, Oxford: James Currey, 2003.
"Images of Villages in Four Recent African Films" pages 501-525 in
African Writers and Their Readers: Essays in Honor of Bernth
Lindfors,
volume 2, edited by Toyin Falola and Barbara Harlow, Trenton, NJ
/ Asmara: Africa World Press, 2002.
“The Blue Eyes of Yonta,” “Kongi’s Harvest,” and “Yaaba” in
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers 1: Films, edited by Tom
Pendergast and Sara Pendergast, fourth edition, Detroit: St. James Press,
2000.
“African Writing Projected onto the Screen:
Sambizanga,
Xala, and Kongi’s Harvest”
African Studies Review 42(1): 79-104, 1999.
“Ousmane Sembène’s
Xala: The Novel, the Film, and
Their Audiences” (with Oumar Cherif Diop)
Research in African
Literatures
29(2): 147-158, 1998.
“Wole Soyinka’s
Kongi’s Harvest from Stage to Screen:
Four Endings to Tyranny”
Canadian Journal of African
Studies
31: 32-49, 1997.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into the following three series:
-
Series 1. Posters, 1947-2010
-
Series 2. Audiovisual materials, 1968-2013
- * Subseries 2.1. 16 mm films, 1968-1982
- * Subseries 2.2. Videos, commercial published approximately
1980s-2013
- * Subseries 2.3. Videos, dubs and non-commercial versions
- * Subseries 2.4. Electronic press kits and data discs, approximately
2000-2010
- * Subseries 2.5. Soundtracks and audio recordings, approximately
1967-2010
-
Series 3. Small format publicity materials, 1950-2012
- * Subseries 3.1. Pressbooks, approximately 1954-2012
- * Subseries 3.2. Chirashi flyers, approximately 1960s-2010
- * Subseries 3.3. Handbills, 1950-2010, bulk 1982-2011
- * Subseries 3.4. Press kits, 1962-2006
- * Subseries 3.5. Lobby cards, store front cards, and oversized publicity
photos, 1966-2010
- * Subseries 3.6. Photographic materials, 1958-2004
- * Subbseries 3.7. Miscellaneous
Cataloger's Note: The first title listed for each item in the inventory is the title as it appears on the
item. In cases where a translation of the title also appears on the item, both have been
included separated by an equal sign. In cases where it was easily ascertainable that the
original and/or English title of the film were different from that appearing on the
item, these have been included in square brackets.
Example:
Title on item = Translated title on item [Original title ; English title] (Date of
earliest known release, publication date of item)
Scope and Content Note
The Josef Gugler collection consists of promotional materials for films produced in or
directed by filmmakers from Africa and the Middle East. Over 500 unique films by
approximately 350 film directors are represented. Formats include film posters,
pressbooks, chirashi flyers, lobby and storefront cards, handbills, photographs, slides,
and audiovisual recordings. Also represented in the collection are promotional materials
for films treating Middle Eastern and African diasporic communities in Europe and films
by American and Western European directors depicting the Middle East and Africa such as
Lawrence of Arabia and
Out of
Africa.
The posters in the collection range from 14 x 10 inches to a 78 x 54.75-inch poster of
Campo Thiaroye by Sembène Ousmane. The majority,
however, are a mix of sizes ranging from approximately 21 x 16 inches to approximately
62 x 47 inches. The posters were printed and distributed throughout Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, and North America. Approximately half of the posters have text in French.
Most of the other half consists of posters in English and German. The remaining 55 items
are in Arabic, Bambara, Croatian, Czech, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian,
Spanish, Thai, and Turkish. The original release dates of the posters go back as early
as 1947 (Ibrahim Emaras's
Akhaam al-Arab, aka
The Wisest Arab), but the majority were released between 1962
and 2010. The most commonly represented countries of production include France, Algeria,
South Africa, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Iran, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco,
Senegal, Tunisia, and Turkey, but over three dozen additional countries are also
represented.
A similar distribution of countries, languages, and dates exists for the pressbooks,
chirashi flyers, handbills, press kits, lobby cards, and photographic materials,
although the variety is somewhat less due to the smaller number of items for each
format.
The photographic materials include 41 prints of African filmmakers Moussa Sene Absa,
Flora Gomes, Dani Koyaté, Sarah Maldoror, Isrissa Ouédraogo, Ousmane Sembène, Ingrid
Sinclair, and Cheik Oumar Sissoko. These mostly appear to be candid shots and include
photos of Sissoko and Ouédraogo receiving awards for their films at FESPACO. The
remaining items are prints and slides of film and production stills for approximately
sixty different films.
Most notable among the audiovisual materials are 16 mm prints of three of Ousmane
Sembène's films:
Mandabi,
Tauw, and
Xala, as well as
Sara Maldoror's
Sambizanga and an episode of the BBC
television show
Woza Albert! Also included in this series
are over 200 commercial DVDs and VHS tapes, two dozen soundtracks on LP and CD, a dozen
electronic press kits, and 142 VHS and DVD-R/CD-Rs that appear to be duplicates of other
items or preview and screening copies from various filmmakers and production
companies.
-
Indexing Terms
-
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
IUCAT, the IU Libraries' online
catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by searching the
catalog using these terms.
-
-
-
Genres/Formats
-
Posters
-
Ephemra
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The material in this collection was donated by Josef
Gugler to the Indiana University Black Film Center Archives in summer
2015.
Usage Restrictions
Materials may be used in-house at the BFC/A; duplication permitted only with
permission of the Archivist. Use of audiovisual materials may require the creation of
a reference copy. If you wish to preview a VHS recording in this collection, please
contact the BFC/A staff well in advance of your visit.
Preferred Citation
[item], Josef Gugler African and Middle Eastern Film Collection, Special Collection
COL 12, Black Film Center/Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Processing InformationProcessed by Ronda L. Sewald.
Completed in 2016.
Collection Inventory