Saër Maty Bâ is currently a course convenor and temporary Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter. Bâ is also a MeCCSA Research Fellow at the University of east London, School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies (2006-2007); the co-director and co-organiser of the 'Re-presenting Diasporas in Cinema and New (Digital) Media' conference (Exeter, 24-25 July 2007); and part of the team (UeL and Goldsmiths) developing the MeCCSA 'race' network's website. Qualifications 2006: PhD in Film Studies (University of Exeter) 2003: MPhil in American Cultural Studies (University of Exeter) 1993: MA Diploma in English & Wolof (Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal) 1992: BA (Hons) in English (Cheikh Anta Diop University) Bâ’s overall research examines inter-texts (across cultures, and national cinemas), theory and practice, while also investigating ethics and aesthetics in (documentary) film representation. Bâ’s research and teaching interests could be summarised as follows: Documentary and the black diasporas Postcolonial francophone cinema The French documentary film The Black Audio Film Collective; Blackside, Inc. Cinematic representation and black presence in ‘mainstream’ cinema – French cinema (1920s- 2000s); Hollywood (1960s-2000s); British cinema (1980s-1990s); 'World' Cinema. Early ‘black’ jazz, photography, the blues, and film – aesthetics and politics Afro-diasporic cultural-political thinking – Negritude, 'African Personality', Pan-Africanism, ‘Civilisation of the Universal’, the poetics of ‘Relation’ The work of Roshini Kempadoo Sergo Paradzhanov – history, memory, and the challenge to Modernity The films of Gloria Rolando (Cuba); Lusophones films (Africa; select Euro-African co-productions; select Afro-Brazilian film directors) (New interest) 'African’ influences in the evolution of cyborg society/black cybernetics
Selected publications ‘Poèsie et concept d’ordre immuable: The Mad House de Thierno Seydou Sall’, In: Bainbrigge, S. (1998) Dialogues 1 Ricochets (Studies on the Theme of ‘le cycle’), Exeter: Elm Bank Publications, pp. 51-58
(DVD translation from French to English, and subtitles) L’Universel? Dialogues avec Senghor/The Universal? Dialogues with Senghor (Maxence Denis, 2004), Spacex Art Gallery, Exeter, June 2005
(Forthcoming) ‘Voix noires: Black Documentary Theory, “The Black Moving Cube”’ (in Senior Curator David A. Bailey’s The Black Moving Cube: Black Figuration and the Moving Image, London and Berlin: June 2007)
(Forthcoming) ‘Gathering Dust in the Wind: Memory and the "Real" in Rithy Panh's S21’. In: Dekalog/Special Issue on East Asian Cinema (edited by Dr K. E. Taylor, University of Wales Bangor) , Wallflower Press: July 2007
(Forthcoming) ‘Visualising Rhythm, Transforming Relationship: Jazz and Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993)’ (Studies in Documentary Film, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 2007)
Current research and writing: 1970s 'blaxploitation' cinema; early black photography ; Afro-Diasporic French Cinema, Rap and postcolonial French popular culture.
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