Colonial cinema: History and Key Facts

Colonial cinema is cinema produced by a colonizing nation in and about their colonies. While typically seen as a Western phenomenon, non-Western countries, most notably Imperial Japan, also had colonial cinemas. Colonial films typically idealize life in the colonies by emphasizing the modernizing aspects of colonization. Feature films set in colonial settings typically represent them as refuges for colonizers looking to escape life in the metropole. As a result, colonial films frequently do not attempt to reflect the social realities of life in colonized countries. Representations of local characters, places, and customs are regularly presented as escapist, apologetic or overtly racist. Today colonial cinema is an important source to understand the mentality of the colonizing societies.

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