Redefining Black Film

Humor & Entertainment

Reid, Mark A.

Movies

U. California

University of California Pre

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 commercial film controlled by whites, Reid considers three genres: African-American comedy, black family film, and black action film. He points out that even when these films use black writers and directors, a black perspective rarely surfaces. Reid's innovative critical approach, which transcends the "black-image" language of earlier studies—and at the same time redefines black film—makes an important contribution to film history. Certain to attract film scholars, this work will also appeal to anyone interested in African-American and Women's Studies.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" brings together essays, freshly written for this edition, that analyze this controversial film from a variety of methodological perspectives. Collectively these essays connect the interracial strife of New York as treated in Do the Right Thing with the contemporary social climate and racism in America. Also included are reviews of the film by influential critics, a large selection of production stills, and a complete bibliography.

Spike Lee's (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Cambridge University Press

Black Lenses, Black Voices is a provocative look at films directed and written—and sometimes produced—by African Americans, as well as black-oriented films whose directors or screenwriters are not black. Mark Reid shows how certain films dramatize the contemporary African American community as a politically and economically diverse group, vastly different from film representations of the 1960s. Taking us through the development of African American independent filmmaking before and after World War II, he then illustrates the unique nature of African American family, action, horror, female-centered, and independent films, such as Eve's Bayou, Jungle Fever, Shaft, Souls of Sin, Bones, Waiting to Exhale, Monster's Ball, Sankofa, and many more.

Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now (Genre and Beyond: A Film Studies Series)

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Shows how film, literature, photography, and television news broadcasts construct myths about race, gender, sexuality, and nation and reinforce socialized ways of looking at these identities, and examines how some creative works and public reactions challenge these myths. In the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights movement and other national and cultural movements fractured dominant paradigms of American identity and demanded a reformulation of American values and norms. This book borrows the moral, ethical, and political purposes of these movements to show how film, literature, photography, and television news broadcasts construct essentialist myths about race, gender, sexuality, and nation. It also examines how some visual and literary works and public reactions challenge these essentialist myths by exploring racial, sexual, and national anxieties. Reid explains how artists such as filmmakers Julie Dash, Spike Lee, and Marlon Riggs, photographers Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Gordon Parks, novelists John A. Williams and Ayi Kwei Armah, playwright Adrienne Kennedy, and poet Bob Kaufman portray the fears of people in the grips of social and psychological change. In each chapter, he explores how an important social issue―black feminism, interracial intimacy, biracial and homosexual identity, and black erotica, for example―is presented in film, literature, and photography. Throughout the book Reid’s analysis is driven by a postNegritude understanding of race and cultural identity as a socially acquired and unfixed process rather than a biological fact. By showing how visual and literary artists challenge hegemonies of power through the creative imagination, he challenges monolithic and fixed notions of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, and cultural identity.

Postnegritude Visual and Literary Culture (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)

State Univ of New York Pr

Shows how film, literature, photography, and television news broadcasts construct myths about race, gender, sexuality, and nation and reinforce socialized ways of looking at these identities, and examines how some creative works and public reactions challenge these myths. In the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights movement and other national and cultural movements fractured dominant paradigms of American identity and demanded a reformulation of American values and norms. This book borrows the moral, ethical, and political purposes of these movements to show how film, literature, photography, and television news broadcasts construct essentialist myths about race, gender, sexuality, and nation. It also examines how some visual and literary works and public reactions challenge these essentialist myths by exploring racial, sexual, and national anxieties. Reid explains how artists such as filmmakers Julie Dash, Spike Lee, and Marlon Riggs, photographers Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Gordon Parks, novelists John A. Williams and Ayi Kwei Armah, playwright Adrienne Kennedy, and poet Bob Kaufman portray the fears of people in the grips of social and psychological change. In each chapter, he explores how an important social issue―black feminism, interracial intimacy, biracial and homosexual identity, and black erotica, for example―is presented in film, literature, and photography. Throughout the book Reid’s analysis is driven by a postNegritude understanding of race and cultural identity as a socially acquired and unfixed process rather than a biological fact. By showing how visual and literary artists challenge hegemonies of power through the creative imagination, he challenges monolithic and fixed notions of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, and cultural identity.

State University of New York Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reid, Mark A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Reid, Mark A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Reid, Mark A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Redefining Black Film

Redefining Black Film

Redefining Black Film

Spike Lee's (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Black Lenses, Black Voices: African American Film Now (Genre and Beyond: A Film Studies Series)

Postnegritude Visual and Literary Culture (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)

Postnegritude Visual and Literary Culture (Suny Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video)