The rise of cinema as the predominant American entertainment around the turn of the last century coincided with the migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the urban ..."land of hope" in the North. This richly illustrated book, discussing many early films and illuminating black urban life in this period, is the first detailed look at the numerous early relationships between African Americans and cinema. It investigates African American migrations onto the screen, into the audience, and behind the camera, showing that African American urban populations and cinema shaped each other in powerful ways. Focusing on Black film culture in Chicago during the silent era,Migrating to the Moviesbegins with the earliest cinematic representations of African Americans and concludes with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and other early "race films" made for Black audiences, discussing some of the extraordinary ways in which African Americans staked their claim in cinema's development as an art and a cultural institution.
Although overlooked by most narratives of American cinema history, films made for purposes outside of theatrical entertainment dominated twentieth-century motion picture production. This volume adds ...to the growing study of nontheatrical films by focusing on the way filmmakers developed and audiences encountered ideas about race, identity, politics, and community outside the borders of theatrical cinema. The contributors to Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film examine the place and role of race in educational films, home movies, industry and government films, anthropological films, and church films, as well as other forms of nontheatrical filmmaking.
William Greaves MacDonald, Scott; Stewart, Jacqueline Najuma
06/2021
eBook
William Greaves is one of the most significant and compelling
American filmmakers of the past century. Best known for his
experimental film about its own making, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm:
Take One , ...Greaves was an influential independent documentary
filmmaker who produced, directed, shot, and edited more than a
hundred films on a variety of social issues and on key African
American figures ranging from Muhammad Ali to Ralph Bunche to Ida
B. Wells. A multitalented artist, his career also included stints
as a songwriter, a member of the Actors Studio, and, during the
late 1960s, a producer and cohost of Black Journal, the first
national television show focused on African American culture and
politics. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of
Greaves's remarkable career. It brings together a wide range of
material, including a mix of incisive essays from critics and
scholars, Greaves's own writings, an extensive meta-interview with
Greaves, conversations with his wife and collaborator Louise
Archambault Greaves and his son David, and a critical dossier on
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm . Together, they illuminate Greaves's
mission to use filmmaking as a tool for transforming the ways
African Americans were perceived by others and the ways they saw
themselves. This landmark book is an essential resource on
Greaves's work and his influence on independent cinema and
African-American culture.
Although overlooked by most narratives of American cinema history, films made for purposes outside of theatrical entertainment dominated twentieth-century motion picture production. This volume adds ...to the growing study of nontheatrical films by focusing on the way filmmakers developed and audiences encountered ideas about race, identity, politics, and community outside the borders of theatrical cinema. The contributors to Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film examine the place and role of race in educational films, home movies, industry and government films, anthropological films, and church films, as well as other forms of nontheatrical filmmaking.
L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinemais 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.
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.
The rise of cinema as the predominant American entertainment around the turn of the last century coincided with the migration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to the urban ..."land of hope" in the North. This richly illustrated book, discussing many early films and illuminating black urban life in this period, is the first detailed look at the numerous early relationships between African Americans and cinema. It investigates African American migrations onto the screen, into the audience, and behind the camera, showing that African American urban populations and cinema shaped each other in powerful ways. Focusing on Black film culture in Chicago during the silent era, Migrating to the Movies begins with the earliest cinematic representations of African Americans and concludes with the silent films of Oscar Micheaux and other early "race films" made for Black audiences, discussing some of the extraordinary ways in which African Americans staked their claim in cinema's development as an art and a cultural institution.
L.A. Rebellion filmmakers show up in their own work, every once in a while. We see them on-screen and/or hear them on the soundtrack. They play characters in fictional narratives (S. Torriano ...Berry’sRich, 1982) or provide narration (Melvonna Ballenger’sRain(Nyesha), 1978). More often they portray themselves as the makers of the films and videos we are watching (Charles Burnett’sNat Turner: A Troublesome Property, 2002; Haile Gerima’sImperfect Journey, 1994; Barbara McCullough’sShopping Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections on Ritual Space, 1981). Self-representation is a mildly recurring device for a handful of L.A. Rebellion makers (Zeinabu irene
The early shot in Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968) that I describe above encapsulates the film’s general approach to Black women.² Seen, but not heard. Admired visually, but on ...the sidelines of the central topic. The film, written by William Branch and photographed, directed, and edited by William Greaves, is a ninety-minute tour de force exploration of the external and internal pressures that the Negro middle class faces at a watershed moment in American political history. Using extensive location shooting, archival footage, a bit of dramatization, and interviews with more than two dozen subjects, Still a
INTRODUCTION ALLYSON NADIA FIELD; JAN-CHRISTOPHER HORAK; JACQUELINE NAJUMA STEWART
L. A. Rebellion,
11/2015
Book Chapter
The group of Black filmmakers that have come to be known as the L.A. Rebellion created a watershed body of work that strives to perform the revolutionary act of humanizing Black people on screen. The ...filmmakers in this group met as students in film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s. Many members are still active as media makers, teachers, and activists. This first group of film school–trained Black filmmakers shared a desire to create an alternative—in narrative, style, and practice—to the dominant American mode of cinema, an unwelcoming
