Slow cinema : narrative, minimalism, and indeterminacy in Kenyan cinema

Abstract

Contemporary scholars perceive Slow Cinema as a distinct art cinema movement (from contemporary mainstream cinemas) that emphasises the passage of time and an undramatic narrative designed for spectatorial contemplation of the cinematic image. Consequently, there is a growing body of literature seeking to locate the narrative-formal strategies of Slow Cinema within the historical, socio-cultural, economic, technological, and political contexts of diverse geographical backgrounds. While contemporary scholarship has interrogated and expanded the frameworks of Slow Cinema techniques particularly in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, there is no systematic research into Slow Cinema’s deployment within an African (Kenyan) context. This study applies auteur theory to understand how Slow Cinema techniques (undramatic/de-dramatised narrative, minimalism, and indeterminacy) can resonate with Kenya’s socio-cultural sensibilities while interrelating on aesthetic, technological, and political levels of the country’s national cinema framework. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate how selected Kenyan film viewers, filmmakers, film critics, film scholars, and film policy-makers would visualise and interpret the narrative and aesthetic conventions of Slow Cinema deployed in the first-ever Kenyan Slow Cinema film, Men of the Hill. To answer the research question, I adopted a mixed-methods research design. I relied on qualitative data obtained from the textual analysis of existing Slow Cinema films, Practice-as-Research (PaR), and interviews. Quantitative data was obtained from a web survey of selected Kenyan film viewers. Findings from the textual analysis of three selected Slow Cinema films: Uncle Boonmee, The Turin Horse, and Skoonheid confirmed that the narrative-formal strategies of Slow Cinema can be situated within the national framework of Kenyan cinema. These results also led to the conclusion that Slow Cinema’s themes can resonate with Kenya’s historical and socio-cultural sensibilities. Findings from PaR indicate that the performative and reflective techniques of making the first-ever Kenyan Slow Cinema film convey the form and style of Slow Cinema while retaining a sense of geo-cultural specificity. Results from the web survey and interviews showed that despite Slow Cinema being viewed as a predominantly new genre in Kenyan cinema, its form and style (undramatic narrative, minimalism and indeterminacy) can create a new reality for the viewer leading to contemplative experiences and practices. Results across the web survey and interviews also revealed that a significant majority of the participants appreciated Slow Cinema because of its potential to showcase Kenya’s cultural tendencies and socio-physical reality, while addressing the existing historical and socio-economic challenges. However, the participants observed that it would take more time and knowledge for the average Kenyan viewer to appreciate Slow Cinema. Finally, the results permit this study to conclude that the availability of context-bound knowledge and the situatedness of different methodological approaches in the research of Slow Cinema can offer a unique opportunity to expand the frameworks of Slow Cinema techniques where none have been explored before.