When the topic of African American cinema is discussed, it is often within the context of images and representation. Throughout the semester, we will spend a lot of time talking about formal components of films by Black directors and how social and historical contexts inform content. For the first week of class, however, time will be spent watching two documentaries that focus on the circulation of African-American images throughout popular culture. While we discuss the kinds of images that are presented, we will also discuss the motives behind the design of these images and how they manage to persist in spite of societal and technological advances.
The late Marlon Riggs (1957-1994) was primarily known for his documentaries that candidly examined issues that concerned the African-American LGBT community (we will be watching another of his films, "Tongues Untied," later in the semester). He is also widely celebrated for his work that looks closely at African-American images in contemporary popular media. His documentary "Color Adjustment" (1991) looks at the presentation of African Americans in television in terms of how the content of Black-themed shows relate to the interests of networks and audience expectations. Prior to "Color Adjustment," Riggs made "Ethnic Notions" (1989), a more expansive analysis of stock caricatures associated with African Americans. He goes as far back as before the Civil War to learn how images such as the mammy, the coon, the sambo, and Uncle Tom were used to justify slavery and subsequent suppression of African Americans. More importantly, Riggs chronicles how these images figure into sheet music, stage productions, and motion pictures after the Civil War and the passing of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments in the Constitution.
Mark Daniels’ "Classified X" (1998), which features filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, furthers the examination of African American images, yet concentrates solely on how stock caricatures develop throughout American cinema in the 20th century. Through his personal history as both a spectator and a filmmaker, Van Peebles begins from when he became conscious of the inconsistency between the images he saw of African Americans onscreen and the people that surrounded him in his neighborhood on the South side of Chicago. He follows with trends that developed in mainstream American cinema concerning the portrayal of Blacks onscreen, up to the point where he released his independently produced film "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song," released in 1971 (which we will watch later in the semester). While Van Peebles’s objective was to transfer the rhetoric and energy of Black radical activism of the 1960s to a non-conventional form of filmmaking, the appropriation of excessive sex and violence and the reduction of a political subtext by Hollywood studios is what gave way to the blaxploitation genre.
As you watch both films, focus on the stock caricatures that are discussed, the context in which these images are produced, and how they persist through various forms of media, particularly film. What are some commonalities shared between these documentaries in terms of their objectives and what they identify, and what are some differences between the two along those same lines. Most importantly, how would you say that "Ethnic Notions" and "Classified X" are in conversation with one another, and how does the information these films provide relate to your personal observations of either Black images in mainstream cinema, or Black-themed films in both mainstream and independent cinema?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Syllabus for Radical Black Film--Spring 2010
SCHEDULE FOR RADICAL BLACK FILM (Spring 2010)
WEEK #1—1/26—The Context of Radical Black Film—Confronting Stereotypical
Representations and The Development of Cinematic Strategies
Screening: Ethnic Notions (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1986, 55 min.)/Classified X (dir. Mark Daniels, 1998, 56 min.)
Readings: Bogle—“Black Beginnings: From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation”/Cripps—“Black Film as Genre: Definitions”/Diawara—“Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance/Snead—"Images of Blacks in Black Independent Films: A Brief
Survey”
WEEK #2—2/2—Early Filmmakers
Screening: Within Our Gates (dir. Oscar Micheaux, 1919, 87 min.)/Clips from Murder in Harlem (dir. Oscar Micheaux, 1935, 102 min.)
Readings: Bowser and Spence—“Within Whose Gates?: The Symbolic and Political Complexity of Racial Discourses”/Green—“Micheaux’s Class Position”/Locke—“The New Negro”
WEEK #3—2/9—Films from Continental Africa
Screening: Xala (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1975, 120 min.)/Clips from Black Girl (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1966, 59 min.)
Readings: Boughedir—“A Cinema Fighting for Its Liberation”/Diawara—"The Artist as the Leader of the Revolution: The History of the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes"/ Pfaff—“Sembene, A Griot of Modern Times”
WEEK #4—2/16—The Birth of Blaxploitation and the Emerging Presence of Blacks in Hollywood
Screening: clips from Sweet Sweetback's Baaadassss Song (dir. Melvin
Van Peebles, 1971, 90 min.)/ Baaadassss Cinema (dir. Isaac Julien, 2004, 58 min.)
Readings: Massood—"Cotton in the City: The Black Ghetto, Blaxploitation, and Beyond"/ James—“Melvin Van Peebles: ‘Original Guerilla’”/Yearwood—"Colloquy on Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song and the Development of the Contemporary Black Film Movement"
WEEK #5—2/23—Challenging Revamped Stereotypes of Blacks in Hollywood
Screening: Bush Mama (dir. Haile Gerima, 1975, 98 min.)/Clips from Killer of Sheep (dir. Charles Burnett, 1977, 81 min.)
Readings: Masilela—"The Los Angeles School of Black
Filmmakers" /Murashige—“Haile Gerima and the Political Economy of Cinematic Resistance/Young—“Shot in Watts”
WEEK #6—3/2—Films of the Caribbean
Screening: Sugar Cane Alley (dir. Euzhan Palcy, 1983, 107 min.)
Readings: Warner—"Film, Literature, and Identity in the Caribbean”/Givanni—“Interview with Euzhan Palcy”/Hall—“Cinematic Identity and Cultural Representation
WEEK #7—3/9— Black British Cinema
Screening: The Passion of Remembrance (dirs. Maureen Blackwood, Isaac Julien, 1986, 80 min.)
Readings: Auguiste/Black Audio Film Collective—“Black Independents and Third Cinema: The British Context”/Fusco—“A Black Avant-Garde?: Notes on Black Audio Film Collective and Sankofa”/Mercer—“Diaspora Culture and the Dialogic Imagination”/Pines—“The Cultural Context of Black British Cinema”
WEEK #8—3/16— Women Filmmakers
Screening: Daughters of the Dust (dir. Julie Dash, 1991, 110 min.)
Readings: Bambara—“Preface”/Dash—"Making Daughters of the Dust”/Dash and hooks—“Dialogue”/Tate—“A Word”
WEEK #9—3/23—Spring Break
WEEK #10—3/30— Mid-term presentations/Mid-term paper due
WEEK #11—4/6—Confronting and Re-Writing History
Screening: The Watermelon Woman (dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996, 83 min.)
Readings: Cripps—“New Black Cinema and Uses of the Past”/Foote—"Hoax of the Lost Ancestor: Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman"/Haslett and Abiaka—"Interview with Cheryl Dunye”
WEEK #12—4/13—Blackness and Sexuality
Screening: Looking for Langston (dir. Isaac Julien, 1986, 45min.)/ Tongues Untied (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1990, 55 min.)
Readings: Gates—“Looking for Modernism”/Julien—"'Black Is, Black Ain't': Notes on De-Essentializing Black Identities"/Riggs—"Unleash the Queen"/van Leer—“Visible Silence: Spectatorship in Black Gay and Lesbian Film”
WEEK #13—4/20—Renaissance of Contemporary African-American Cinema
Screening: Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989, 109 min.)
Readings: Massood—“Welcome to Crooklyn: Spike Lee and the Rearticulation of the Black Urbanscape”/Watkins—“Black Youth and the Ironies of Capitalism”
WEEK #14—4/27—New Media, Representation and the Neglect of History
Screenings: Bamboozled (dir. Spike Lee, 2000, 136 min.)
Readings: Crowdus and Georgakas—"Thinking About the Power of Images: An Interview with Spike Lee/Davis—"'Beautiful Ugly' Blackface: An Aesthetic Appreciation of Bamboozled"/Landau—"Spike Lee's Revolutionary Broadside"/Lucia—"Race, Media, and Money: A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee's Bamboozled/Rogin—"Nowhere Left to Stand: The Burnt Cork Roots of Popular Culture"/Tate—"Bamboozled: White Supremacy and a Black Way of Being Human/White—"Post-Art Minstrelsy"/Massood—“Epilogue: New Millenium Minstrel Shows? African-American Cinema in the Late 1990s”
WEEK #15—5/3—Post-Millenial Expressions of African-American Cinematic Identity
Screenings: Medicine for Melancholy (dir. Barry Jenkins, 2009, 87 min.)
Readings: Lim—“Examining Race and a Future Beyond It” (New York Times)/Lott--“A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema”/O’Hehir—“Young, Black, Sexy, and Sad in San Francisco” (Salon)/Taylor—“We Don’t Need Another Hero: Anti-Theses on Aesthetics”/Tully—“A Conversation with Barry Jenkins”/Yearwood—“Towards a Theory of a Black Cinema Aesthetic”
WEEK #16—5/10—Final Discussion/Final Paper presentations
WEEK #17—5/17 (EXAM WEEK)—FINAL PAPER DUE by 4:00pm
WEEK #1—1/26—The Context of Radical Black Film—Confronting Stereotypical
Representations and The Development of Cinematic Strategies
Screening: Ethnic Notions (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1986, 55 min.)/Classified X (dir. Mark Daniels, 1998, 56 min.)
Readings: Bogle—“Black Beginnings: From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The Birth of a Nation”/Cripps—“Black Film as Genre: Definitions”/Diawara—“Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance/Snead—"Images of Blacks in Black Independent Films: A Brief
Survey”
WEEK #2—2/2—Early Filmmakers
Screening: Within Our Gates (dir. Oscar Micheaux, 1919, 87 min.)/Clips from Murder in Harlem (dir. Oscar Micheaux, 1935, 102 min.)
Readings: Bowser and Spence—“Within Whose Gates?: The Symbolic and Political Complexity of Racial Discourses”/Green—“Micheaux’s Class Position”/Locke—“The New Negro”
WEEK #3—2/9—Films from Continental Africa
Screening: Xala (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1975, 120 min.)/Clips from Black Girl (dir. Ousmane Sembene, 1966, 59 min.)
Readings: Boughedir—“A Cinema Fighting for Its Liberation”/Diawara—"The Artist as the Leader of the Revolution: The History of the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes"/ Pfaff—“Sembene, A Griot of Modern Times”
WEEK #4—2/16—The Birth of Blaxploitation and the Emerging Presence of Blacks in Hollywood
Screening: clips from Sweet Sweetback's Baaadassss Song (dir. Melvin
Van Peebles, 1971, 90 min.)/ Baaadassss Cinema (dir. Isaac Julien, 2004, 58 min.)
Readings: Massood—"Cotton in the City: The Black Ghetto, Blaxploitation, and Beyond"/ James—“Melvin Van Peebles: ‘Original Guerilla’”/Yearwood—"Colloquy on Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song and the Development of the Contemporary Black Film Movement"
WEEK #5—2/23—Challenging Revamped Stereotypes of Blacks in Hollywood
Screening: Bush Mama (dir. Haile Gerima, 1975, 98 min.)/Clips from Killer of Sheep (dir. Charles Burnett, 1977, 81 min.)
Readings: Masilela—"The Los Angeles School of Black
Filmmakers" /Murashige—“Haile Gerima and the Political Economy of Cinematic Resistance/Young—“Shot in Watts”
WEEK #6—3/2—Films of the Caribbean
Screening: Sugar Cane Alley (dir. Euzhan Palcy, 1983, 107 min.)
Readings: Warner—"Film, Literature, and Identity in the Caribbean”/Givanni—“Interview with Euzhan Palcy”/Hall—“Cinematic Identity and Cultural Representation
WEEK #7—3/9— Black British Cinema
Screening: The Passion of Remembrance (dirs. Maureen Blackwood, Isaac Julien, 1986, 80 min.)
Readings: Auguiste/Black Audio Film Collective—“Black Independents and Third Cinema: The British Context”/Fusco—“A Black Avant-Garde?: Notes on Black Audio Film Collective and Sankofa”/Mercer—“Diaspora Culture and the Dialogic Imagination”/Pines—“The Cultural Context of Black British Cinema”
WEEK #8—3/16— Women Filmmakers
Screening: Daughters of the Dust (dir. Julie Dash, 1991, 110 min.)
Readings: Bambara—“Preface”/Dash—"Making Daughters of the Dust”/Dash and hooks—“Dialogue”/Tate—“A Word”
WEEK #9—3/23—Spring Break
WEEK #10—3/30— Mid-term presentations/Mid-term paper due
WEEK #11—4/6—Confronting and Re-Writing History
Screening: The Watermelon Woman (dir. Cheryl Dunye, 1996, 83 min.)
Readings: Cripps—“New Black Cinema and Uses of the Past”/Foote—"Hoax of the Lost Ancestor: Cheryl Dunye's The Watermelon Woman"/Haslett and Abiaka—"Interview with Cheryl Dunye”
WEEK #12—4/13—Blackness and Sexuality
Screening: Looking for Langston (dir. Isaac Julien, 1986, 45min.)/ Tongues Untied (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1990, 55 min.)
Readings: Gates—“Looking for Modernism”/Julien—"'Black Is, Black Ain't': Notes on De-Essentializing Black Identities"/Riggs—"Unleash the Queen"/van Leer—“Visible Silence: Spectatorship in Black Gay and Lesbian Film”
WEEK #13—4/20—Renaissance of Contemporary African-American Cinema
Screening: Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989, 109 min.)
Readings: Massood—“Welcome to Crooklyn: Spike Lee and the Rearticulation of the Black Urbanscape”/Watkins—“Black Youth and the Ironies of Capitalism”
WEEK #14—4/27—New Media, Representation and the Neglect of History
Screenings: Bamboozled (dir. Spike Lee, 2000, 136 min.)
Readings: Crowdus and Georgakas—"Thinking About the Power of Images: An Interview with Spike Lee/Davis—"'Beautiful Ugly' Blackface: An Aesthetic Appreciation of Bamboozled"/Landau—"Spike Lee's Revolutionary Broadside"/Lucia—"Race, Media, and Money: A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee's Bamboozled/Rogin—"Nowhere Left to Stand: The Burnt Cork Roots of Popular Culture"/Tate—"Bamboozled: White Supremacy and a Black Way of Being Human/White—"Post-Art Minstrelsy"/Massood—“Epilogue: New Millenium Minstrel Shows? African-American Cinema in the Late 1990s”
WEEK #15—5/3—Post-Millenial Expressions of African-American Cinematic Identity
Screenings: Medicine for Melancholy (dir. Barry Jenkins, 2009, 87 min.)
Readings: Lim—“Examining Race and a Future Beyond It” (New York Times)/Lott--“A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema”/O’Hehir—“Young, Black, Sexy, and Sad in San Francisco” (Salon)/Taylor—“We Don’t Need Another Hero: Anti-Theses on Aesthetics”/Tully—“A Conversation with Barry Jenkins”/Yearwood—“Towards a Theory of a Black Cinema Aesthetic”
WEEK #16—5/10—Final Discussion/Final Paper presentations
WEEK #17—5/17 (EXAM WEEK)—FINAL PAPER DUE by 4:00pm
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