The purpose of this study is to examine the social and political functions of the video halls in Kampala, Uganda, based on a field study conducted during two months in the end of 2011. 13 video halls in nine different areas of Kampala form the basis of this study, and the methods being used are observations and structured and semistructured interviews with video hall owners, attendees, street vendors and "people on the street". The video halls are then problematized and discussed through theories on (social) space: Michel Foucault's (1967/1984) concept of "other spaces" and heterotopia; David Harvey's (1996) dialectical approach to the production of space, and; Nick Couldry and Anna McCarthy's (2004) volume on the concept of MediaSpace. The study finds that the social space of the video hall is closely linked with questions of morale and “otherness”: the video hall is by many regarded an immoral place, where thieves gather and people do drugs. This frames the video hall outside of the "normal" social imaginary, even by many of the people attending the hall. The study also finds that the potential for political resistance or an alternative public sphere – one of the main features of Foucault's heterotopia – as seen in the video parlors in Nigeria (Okome 2007) do not seem to have any bearing in the Ugandan context. Factors such as the lack of educational films, and the moral contestation of the social space, is argued to be the cause of this, however the study also makes the argument that the video hall itself, as well as the academic field of film in general, has to be taken more seriously by the academia in Uganda in order to make sense of the functions and implications of this "othering" of the social space that is the video hall.

Cette thèse explore d’abord les conditions de la disparition des salles de cinéma traditionnelles en Afrique de l’Ouest et spécifiquement au Tchad, en pointant les causes multifactorielles : technologiques, économiques, politiques et financières qui ont conduit à la transformation de ces salles en locaux commerciaux ou en lieux de culte. Elle examine les processus de mise en place de structures particulières au continent africain : centres culturelsrégis par des congrégations, par des ambassades ou par l’Etat tchadien, mais surtout « vidéoclubs» ou « ciné-clubs », établissements informels de diffusion cinématographique omniprésents dans le paysage urbain en Afrique. L’analyse détaillée de ces dispositifs comme entreprises familiales, comme lieux de sociabilité et comme vecteurs d’une forme abâtardie de culture cinématographique est au cœur de cette recherche. Elle a permis d’identifier les logiques économiques de ces acteurs en tant que maillons d’une chaîne qui part des entreprises nigérianes ou camerounaises de reproduction de supports piratés et aboutit au public lui-même.A partir d’entretiens conduits avec un échantillon de spectateurs, nous avons étudié leurs habitudes de fréquentation, leurs comportements, mais aussi l’expression de leurs attachements aux films qui leur sont proposés. Ceci constitue le second axe fort de ce travail,notamment en ce qui concerne le rapport qu’entretiennent ces publics avec le cinéma tchadien et, plus largement, avec la fiction cinématographique. Cette thèse pose enfin les bases d’une réflexion sur le rôle que pourrait jouer l’Etat pour améliorer les conditions de diffusion et de réception du cinéma africain sur le territoire national. / This study explores the conditions surrounding the closure of traditional movie theatres inWest Africa, particularly in Chad. It will look at the multi-facetted causes, such as thetechnological, economic, political and financial reasons which have led to the transformationof these cinemas into shops or places of worship.It examines the process of setting up film-viewing alternatives that seem typical of Africa:cultural centers run by church congregations, embassies or the Chadian government andespecially “video-clubs” or “cine-clubs”, informal establishments of cinema distributionfound throughout the African urban landscape.The detailed analysis of these devices as family businesses, social venues and vectors of abastardized form of cinema culture is at the heart of this research. It allows us to identify theeconomic impact of these players as links in the process that takes a movie from itsreproduction in pirated form by Nigerian or Cameroon companies through to screening beforea Chadian audience.Through interviews conducted within a sample of spectators, we have studied their cinemahabits, behaviour and attachment to the films proposed.The latter is the second main axis of this study, particularly concerning the relationship thatthese audiences maintain with Chadian cinema, and, in a broader context, with cinema fictionitself. This thesis lays the foundations for a reflection on the role that the State could play inimproving the conditions of distribution and reception of African cinema throughout Chad