Cinema as Foreign Exchange (1984)

This documentary shows how cinema has been used very differently in three neighbouring African countries with different colonial heritages: Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Madagascar. Mozambique used cinema newsreels as a crucial propaganda tool after the Portugese colonisers left. Madagascar boycotted US movies, so its screens were dominated by French, Indian and Hong Kong films instead. But a few films managed to get made. The situation in Zimbabwe was the worst, except that alone of the three countries it possessed an efficient film laboratory.

• Release Date: 1984-06-06
• Runtime: 1h 1min
• Production Company: Channel 4 Television
• Production Country: United Kingdom
• Director: Simon Hartog