Celebrating Sidney Poitier
A guide with print and visual resources for research on Sidney Poitier. Actor, film director, civil rights activist, author, and ambassador, Poitier was a groundbreaking international film icon.
Oscar Micheaux
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Straight Lick
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A critical examination of the films of Oscar Micheaux. One of the most original and successful filmmakers of all time, Oscar Micheaux was born into a rural, working-class, African-American family in mid-America in 1884, yet he created an impressive legacy in commercial cinema. Between 1913 and 1951 he wrote, directed, and distributed some forty-three feature films, more than any other black filmmaker in the world, a record of production that is likely to stand for a very long time. Micheaux's work was founded upon the concern for class mobility, or uplift, for African Americans. Uplift provided the context for Micheaux's extensive commentary on racist cinema, such as D. W. Griffith's 1915 blockbuster, The Birth of a Nation, which Micheaux "answered" with his very early films Within Our Gates and Symbol of the Unconquered. Uplift explains Micheaux's use of "negative images" of African Americans as well as his multi-pronged campaign against stereotype and caricature in American culture. His campaign produced a body of films saturated with a nuanced intertexual "signifying," boldly and repeatedly treating controversial topics that face white censorship time after time, topics ranging from white mob and Klan violence to light-skin-color fetish to white financing of black cultural productions.
ISBN: 0253337534Publication date: 2000-09-22 -
Oscar Micheaux and His Circle
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Oscar Micheaux-the most prolific African-American filmmaker to date and a filmmaking giant of the silent period-has finally found his rightful place in film history. Both artist and showman, Micheaux stirred controversy in his time as he confronted issues such as lynching, miscegenation, peonage and white supremacy, passing, and corruption among black clergymen. He emphasized the importance of education and the rights of citizenship (the vote, equal protection under the law) for racial uplift, to advance race progress, to awaken black consciousness, and to correct negative behavior within black communities. These films spoke to black moviegoers in ways that were completely different from Hollywood pictures. In this important new collection, prominent scholars examine Micheaux's surviving silent films, his fellow producers of race films who alternately challenged or emulated his methods, and the cultural activities that surrounded and sustained these achievements. The essays shed new light on the feature filmmaking of Richard Maurice (Detroit), David Starkman and the Colored Players Film Corporation (Philadelphia), and Richard Norman (Florida), as well as the stardom of Evelyn Preer, Lucia Lynn Moses, Paul Robeson, Charles Gilpin, and Lawrence Chenault. Studies of the shorter films shot in 16mm by ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston and religious reformers James and Eloyce Gist (Washington, D.C.) fill out the complex picture of an era. Authors examine Micheaux's films (and novels) from a range of perspectives, including his radical aesthetic strategies, his uses of stereotypes, his powerful critiques of D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and Eugene O'Neill's race plays, his radical uses of other texts (notably the novels of Charles Chesnutt), and his work with such genres as the Western. The relationship between black film and both the stage (particularly the Lafayette Players) and the black press, issues of underdevelopment, and a genealogy of Micheaux scholarship, as well as extensive and more accurate filmographies, give a richly textured portrait of this era. The essays will fascinate the general public as well as scholars in the fields of film studies, cultural studies, and African American history. This thoroughly readable collection is a superb reference work lavishly illustrated with rare photographs. Contributors include Pearl Bowser, Jayna Brown, Corey Creekmur, Jane Gaines, Gloria J. Gibson, J. Ronald Green, Arthur Jafa, Phyllis Klotman, Charles Musser, Charlene Regester, Louise Spence, Clyde R. Taylor, Sr. Francesca Thompson, and Michele Wallace.
ISBN: 0253339944Publication date: 2001-08-01
William D. Foster
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Independent Black cinema got its start on Chicago’s South SideWilliam Foster was the first Black director to make a film with an all-Black cast. But most people have never heard of him. This is his story.
Hollywood Diversity Report 2019
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Hollywood Diversity ReportA yearly report (2014-present) on diversity in the industry from the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies.
Spike Lee
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The Films of Spike Lee
Through in-depth interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from his films, Spike Lee talks about the ideas, influences, motivations, struggles and successes behind his work.
ISBN: 1572528656
Ava Duvernay
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Conversations with Ava DuVernay—“A Call to Action”: Organizing Principles of an Activist Cinematic PracticeMartin, Michael T. “Conversations with Ava DuVernay—‘A Call to Action’: Organizing Principles of an Activist Cinematic Practice.” Black Camera : the Newsletter of the Black Film Center/Archives, vol. 6, no. 1, 2014, pp. 57–91, https://doi.org/10.2979/blackcamera.6.1.57.
Julie Dash
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Teaching Daughters of the Dust As a Womanist Film and the Black Arts Aesthetic of Filmmaker Julie Dash
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An anthology of essays devoted to the examination of filmmaker Julie Dash's ground-breaking film, Daughters of the Dust, this book celebrates the importance and influence of this film and positions it within the discourses of Black Feminism, Womanism, the LA Rebellion, New Black Cinema, Great Migration, The Black Arts tradition, Oral History, African American/Black/African diasporan Studies, and Black film/cinema studies. Employing a transdisciplinary approach to examining the film, the anthology includes chapters which examine unique aspects/themes of the film. At the core of each chapter, however, is a recognition of the influence of Black feminist/Womanist theory and politics and African American history--from enslavement to freedom/Reconstruction, Black political identity and liberation movement(s)--and African/ African diasporan cosmology on Dash's work and how all work in concert in her masterful narrative of Black family, 20th Black women's identities, and the tension between modernity/tradition experienced by Gullah-Geechee people at the turn of the 20th century.
ISBN: 9781433166488Publication date: 2020-07-16
Black filmmakers
Black filmmakers revolutionized the film industry. Below is a list of just a few:
- Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled by black filmmakers, Micheaux is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker.
- William D. Foster: 1884 – 15 April 1940 was a pioneering African-American film producer who was an influential figure in the Black film industry in the early 20th century. He was the first African American to found a film production company, establishing the Foster Photoplay Company in Chicago in 1910. His film "The Railroad Porter" 1912, is credited as being the world's first film with an entirely black cast and director.
- Charles Burnett (1944) is an American film director, film producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. Growing up in the Watts community in Los Angeles had an enormous impact on Burnett's work, as well as his education at UCLA. The turbulent social events of 1967 and 1968 were vital in establishing the UCLA filmmaking movement known as the "Black Independent Movement”, in which Burnett was highly involved.
- Spike Lee (1957) is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues.
- Ava Duvernay (1972) is a filmmaker and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee of an Academy Award and Golden Globe
- Julie Dash (1952) is a filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion.
- Jamaa Fanaka (1942-2012) was an American filmmaker. He is best known for his 1979 film, "Penitentiary", and was one of the leading directors of the L.A. Rebellion film movement.
- Melvin Van Peebles (1932-2001) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s. He was known for "The Shining" (1997), "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" (1971) and "Jaws: The Revenge" (1987)
Recommended readings
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Black Women Filmmakers and Black Love on Screen
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This book offers a thorough analysis of how romantic love between Black men and women (referred to here as Black Love) is portrayed in Hollywood films, specifically from the perspective of Black female filmmakers. Using historical and contemporary images of Black female representation in the media as a foundation, the main themes of this text focus on the male gazes' influence on Hollywood narratives, the necessity for the Black female perspective in Hollywood, and that perspective's influence on ideologies and narratives.
ISBN: 0429890516Publication date: 2018-11-20 -
Why We Make Movies
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Draws on interview with such African-American directors and producers as Spike Lee, Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, Fed Williamson, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Forrest Whitaker, and Robert Townsend to discuss the creative processes of successful members of the movie industry today. Original.
ISBN: 0767911814Publication date: 2003-02-18 -
White Lies and Allies in Contemporary Black Media
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This book considers the ways in which Black directors, screenwriters, and showrunners contend with the figure of the would-be White ally in contemporary film and television. White Lies and Allies in Contemporary Black Media examines the ways in which prominent figures such as Issa Rae, Spike Lee, Justin Simien, Jordan Peele, and Donald Glover centralize complex Black protagonists in their work while also training a Black gaze on would-be White allies. Emily R. Rutter highlights how these Black creators represent both performative White allyship and the potential for true White antiracist allyship, while also examining the reasons why Black creators utilize the white ally trope in the wider context of the film and television industries. During an era in which concerns with White liberal complicity in anti-Black racism are of paramount importance, Rutter explores how these films and televisions shows, and their creators, contribute to the wider project of dismantling internal, interpersonal, ideological, and institutional White hegemony. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Film and Media Studies, Television Studies, American Studies, African American Studies, and Popular Culture.
ISBN: 9781000813036Publication date: 2022-12-23 -
Black Cinema and Visual Culture
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Using both independent and Hollywood film, as well as television and the internet, these essays present a wide-ranging and insightful take on the cultural politics of Black-American life that will educate and inspire readers. This is the first comprehensive look at the output of contemporary Black filmmakers as a continuum of a rich and enduring cinematic tradition. Looks at complex issues of racial, gender, and class representations in the first two decades of the twenty-first century which have not been exposed to critical analysis.
ISBN: 0367528738Publication date: 2023-03-30 -
A Piece of the Action
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Hollywood is often thought of-and certainly by Hollywood itself-as a progressive haven. However, in the decade after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the film industry grew deeply conservative when it came to conflicts over racial justice. Amid black self-assertion and white backlash, many of the most heated struggles in film were fought over employment. In A Piece of the Action, Eithne Quinn reveals how Hollywood catalyzed wider racial politics, through representation on screen as well as in battles over jobs and resources behind the scenes. Based on extensive archival research and detailed discussions of films like In the Heat of the Night, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Super Fly, Claudine, and Blue Collar, this volume considers how issues of race and labor played out on the screen during the tumultuous early years of affirmative action. Quinn charts how black actors leveraged their performance capital to force meaningful changes to employment and film content. She examines the emergence of Sidney Poitier and other African Americans as A-list stars; the careers of black filmmakers such as Melvin Van Peebles and Ossie Davis; and attempts by the federal government and black advocacy groups to integrate cinema. Quinn also highlights the limits of Hollywood's liberalism, showing how predominantly white filmmakers, executives, and unions hid the persistence of racism behind feel-good stories and public-relations avowals of tolerance. A rigorous analysis of the deeply rooted patterns of racial exclusion in American cinema, A Piece of the Action sheds light on why conservative and corporate responses to antiracist and labor activism remain pervasive in today's Hollywood.
ISBN: 9780231164368Publication date: 2019-12-31 -
Black Women Directors
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Black women have long recognized the power of film for storytelling. For far too long, however, the cultural and historical narratives about film have not accounted for the contributions of Black women directors. This book remedies this omission by highlighting the trajectory of the culturally significant work of Black women directors in the United States, from the under-examined pioneers of the silent era, to the documentarians who sought to highlight the voices and struggles of Black women, and the contemporary Black women directors in Hollywood. Applying a Black feminist perspective, this book examines the ways that Black women filmmakers have made a way for themselves and their work by resisting the dominant cultural expectations for Black women and for the medium of film, as a whole.
ISBN: 1978813341Publication date: 2022-03-18 -
The Afro-American Cinematic Experience
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This book documents the changing nature of film content, the volatile character of race relations in the nation at large, and the general progression of Afro-American history and American thought.
ISBN: 0842022139Publication date: 1983-12-01 -
Blacks in Black and White
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Since its publication in 1977 to acclaim as a pioneering work, this has remained the first and only book to detail all aspects of a unique era in the history of motion pictures--the only time in the U.S. when films featuring an all-Black cast, produced and directed by Blacks, were shown primarily to Black audiences, in theatres many of which were owned and managed by Blacks. Sampson traces the history of the Black film industry from its beginnings around 1910 to its demise in 1950, chronicling the activities of pioneer Black filmmakers and performers who have been virtually ignored by film historians. Significantly more information on Oscar Micheaux and other Black producers of the period and descriptions of many more Black films are included in the second edition. A new chapter discusses the first black images in American film as portrayed by Whites in blackface. The list of film titles from both the sound and the silent periods, including members of the cast, has been greatly expanded. With an extensive list of Black musical "soundies;" full index; and many new and rare photographs.
ISBN: 0810826054Publication date: 1995-04-19 -
The Myth of Colorblindness
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This book explores representations of race and ethnicity in contemporary cinema and the ways in which these depictions all too often promulgate an important racial ideology: the myth of colorblindness. Colorblindness is a discursive framework employed by mainstream, neoliberal media to celebrate a multicultural society while simultaneously disregarding its systemic and institutionalized racism. This collection is unique in its examination of such films as Ex Machina, The Lone Ranger, The Blind Side, Zootopia, The Fast and the Furious franchise, and Dope, which celebrate the myth of colorblindness, yet perpetuate and entrench the racism and racial inequities that persist in contemporary society. While the #OscarsSoWhite movement has been essential to bringing about structural changes to media industries and offers the opportunity for a wide diversity of voices to alter and transform the dominant, colorblind narratives continue to proliferate. As this book demonstrates, Hollywood still has a long way to go.
ISBN: 9783030174460Publication date: 2019-10-09 -
L. A. Rebellion
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L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema is the first book dedicated to the films and filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion, a group of African, Caribbean, and African American independent film and video artists that formed at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1970s and 1980s. The group--including Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Jamaa Fanaka, and Zeinabu irene Davis--shared a desire to create alternatives to the dominant modes of narrative, style, and practice in American cinema, works that reflected the full complexity of Black experiences. This landmark collection of essays and oral histories examines the creative output of the L.A. Rebellion, contextualizing the group's film practices and offering sustained analyses of the wide range of works, with particular attention to newly discovered films and lesser-known filmmakers. Based on extensive archival work and preservation, this collection includes a complete filmography of the movement, over 100 illustrations (most of which are previously unpublished), and a bibliography of primary and secondary materials. This is an indispensible sourcebook for scholars and enthusiasts, establishing the key role played by the L.A. Rebellion within the histories of cinema, Black visual culture, and postwar art in Los Angeles.
ISBN: 0520960432Publication date: 2015-11-13
