Redefining Black Film

Author: Mark A. Reid
ISBN: 9780520079021

Can films about black characters, produced by white filmmakers, be considered "black films"? In answering this question, Mark Reid reassesses black film history, carefully distinguishing between films controlled by blacks and films that utilize black talent, but are controlled by whites. Previous black film criticism has "buried" the true black film industry, Reid says, by concentrating on films that are about, but not by, blacks. Reid's discussion of black independent films--defined as films that focus on the black community and that are written, directed, produced, and distributed by blacks--ranges from the earliest black involvement at the turn of the century up through the civil rights movement of the Sixties and the recent resurgence of feminism in black cultural production. His critical assessment of work by some black filmmakers such as Spike Lee notes how these films avoid dramatizations of sexism, homophobia, and classism within the black community. In the area of black comm

Publisher: University of California Press
Publish Date: 1993

Subjects: Performing Arts / Film & Video / General, Performing Arts / Film & Video / History & Criticism, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Cross-Cultural Center (Location: Black/African American (BLCK))