Extended cinema in Kenya and Tanzania: Technological Innovation and Related Trends in Local Audiovisual Storytelling

This research project sits on the crossroads between current technological trends in Africa, with a focus on Kenya and Tanzania, and related evolutions in local audiovisual production and distribution. It revolves around the question if and how the production and distribution of film and video is affected by technological innovation, and how this plays out socially and economically In different local contexts. This question is broken down into three hypotheses to be critically interrogated: (1) the statement that technological progress has had democratizing effects on production and on distribution in Kenya and Tanzania; (2) the statement that it is associated with a diversification of local production and distribution; and (3) the statement that it results in more locally-relevant stories and distribution processes.;These questions are dealt with in six stand-alone articles departing from different research questions. A seventh and final chapter revisits and critically assesses the three hypotheses. The data assembled provide partial support for the hypotheses. Technological innovation in Kenya and Tanzania is instrumental in processes of democratization, diversification, and a growing local relevance of the production and distribution of audiovisual stories, but it is always shaped and limited by a range of contextual factors.