Jean Marie Teno’s Camera Verité as Art Intervention in Cameroon

Historically, filmmakers in Cameroon have reacted differently to stiff censorship by the two political regimes that Cameroon has had since 1960. While some have opted for self-censorship and subtle deconstruction, a few have chosen to use their art as a liberation tool, consistently defying the status quo by decrying various socio-political injustices. Using Italian neorealism as analytical framework, this paper analyzes selected films of Jean Marie Teno, one of Cameroon’s liberationist filmmakers, to buttress how he stands in as the voice of the voiceless. At the end of this analysis, the major observation is that Teno could aptly be considered not just as a committed filmmaker with the objective to bring to the lime light alternative (and true) narratives of African life to the limelight, but also as an African theorist in present day socio-political discourse.

Keywords: Camera verité, Italian neorealism, militant filmmaking, socio-political discourse, post-colonial discourse.