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

146 Pages·2005·2.33 MB·English

by  Mark A. Reid

Film • African American Studies
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Genre and Beyond: A Film Studies Series Series Editor: Leonard Leff
“In Black Lenses, Black VoicesMark Reid has given us an always interesting sum- LLEENNSSEESS,,
mation of his evolving, highly original analysis of black film as a cinema ‘commit-
ted to the survival and wholeness of an entire people.’”
—Thomas R. Cripps, Morgan State University
BBLLAACCKK VVOOIICCEESS
“Mark Reid brings to our attention a complex and rich group of contemporary
films, deftly setting them within their history in African American and Hollywood
filmmaking. Always enlightening, never simple, Reid’s work is significant for film B
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criticism and for race and gender media analysis.”
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—Janet Staiger, University of Texas at Austin K

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Black Lenses, Black Voicesis a provocative look at films directed and written—and N MMAARRKK AA.. RREEIIDD
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sometimes produced—by African Americans, as well as black-oriented films whose E
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directors and/or screenwriters are not black. Mark Reid shows how certain films ,

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dramatize the contemporary African American community as a politically and eco-
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nomically diverse group, vastly different from film representations of the 1960s.
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Taking us through the development of African American independent filmmaking K

before and after World War II, he then illustrates the unique nature of African V
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American family, action, horror, female-centered, and independent films, such as
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Eve’s Bayou, Jungle Fever, Shaft, Souls of Sin, Bones, Waiting to Exhale, Monster’s E
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Ball, Sankofa, and many more.
Mark A. Reid is professor of English and film at the University of Florida at
Gainesville, where he teaches African Diasporic studies.
For orders and information
please contact the publisher ISBN 978-0-7425-2642-6 Ro
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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A wholly owned subsidiary of a
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The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 L
Lanham, Maryland 20706 Cover photo: Scene still from Set It Off ittle
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Black Lenses,
Black Voices
Genre and Beyond
AFilmStudiesSeries
Series Editor:LeonardLeff,OklahomaStateUniversity
GenreandBeyondoffersfreshperspectivesonconceptions offilmaswell
as cinema’s role in a changing world. Books in the series explore often
overlookedorunconventionalgenresaswellasmoretraditionalthemes.
Theseengagingtextshavetherigorthatscholarsdemandandthecreativ-
ityandaccessibilitythatstudentsandinterestedreadersexpect.
TitlesintheSeries
CinematicShakespeare
MichaelAnderegg
BlackLenses,BlackVoices:AfricanAmericanFilmNow
MarkA.Reid
ForthcomingintheSeries
HighComedyinAmericanMovies:
ClassandHumorfromthe1920stothePresent
SteveVineberg
QueerImages:HomosexualityinAmericanFilm
HarryM.BenshoffandSeanGriffin
KillinginStyle:ArtisticMurderintheMovies
StevenSchneider
HybridCinemainHollywood
IraJaffe
FilmAdaptations
ChristineGeraghty
Black Lenses,
Black Voices
African American Film Now
Mark A. Reid
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•Toronto•Oxford
ROWMAN&LITTLEFIELDPUBLISHERS,INC.
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
byRowman&LittlefieldPublishers,Inc.
AwhollyownedsubsidiaryofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc.
4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,MD20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
P.O.Box317,OxfordOX29RU,UK
Copyright(cid:2)2005byRowman&LittlefieldPublishers,Inc.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval
system,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,
photocopying,recording,orotherwise,withoutthepriorpermissionofthe
publisher.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Reid,Mark(MarkA.)
Blacklenses,Blackvoices:AfricanAmericanfilmnow/MarkA.Reid.
p. cm.—(Genreandbeyond)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-7425-2641-0(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN0-7425-2642-9(pbk.:alk.
paper) 1.AfricanAmericansinmotionpictures. 2.AfricanAmericansinthe
motionpictureindustry. 3.Raceinmotionpictures. I.Title. II.Series.
PN1995.9.N4R43 2005
791.43(cid:2)75(cid:2)08996073—dc22 2004026201
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
(cid:3)(cid:3)(cid:4)
Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsof
AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperfor
PrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 EarlyAfricanAmericanFilm,1912–1940andBeyond 7
2 BlackFamilyFilm:The1990s 19
3 BlackActionFilmafterTwentyYears 37
4 TwoAfricanAmericanHorrorFilms 61
5 BlackFemale–CenteredFilm 79
6 BlackIndependentFilm:HaileGerima’sSankofa 105
Bibliography 121
SelectedFilmography 127
Index 133
AbouttheAuthor 136
v
In loving memory of my parents,
Robert F. and Patricia M. Reid
Acknowledgments
T
hanksgotoLeonardJ.Leff,theserieseditor,whoinvitedmetowrite
onAfricanAmericanfilmandwasquitehelpfulinsharpeningmyprose.
I am deeply grateful to Brenda Hadenfeldt, the acquisitions editor, and
JehanneSchweitzer,theproductioneditor,forguidingthisbookthrough
all its transformations from a very rough draft to an interesting piece of
writing.
I would like to thank the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences at the University of Florida for awarding me a 2002–2003
HumanitiesScholarshipEnhancementFundthatenabledmetoconduct
thenecessaryresearchtowritethisbook.Iwouldalsoliketoexpressmy
gratitudetoJohnLeavey,theEnglishDepartmentchair,whohasconsis-
tently been supportive of my work in the field of African Diasporic
studies.
Mostofthisbookwaswrittenandrevisedinthecomfortofawarm
ParisianapartmentinaneighborhoodpeopledbyNorthandsub-Saharan
Africans, and by Jews and foreign tourists from the States and countries
inWesternandEasternEurope.Awell-deservedthanksgoestoMadame
Stora-Burstin for allowing me to write far from the maddening crowd
but still ina great multicultural neighborhood that instillsa furtive hope
forworldpeace.
This book is an extension of ‘‘New Wave Black Cinema in the
1990s,’’ which first appeared in Winston Wheeler Dixon’s Film Genre
2000 (2000). Parts of chapters 1 and 7 of Redefining Black Film (1993)
were instrumental in shaping the present chapters 1 and 6. This book
shouldbeseenasacontinuationofRedefiningBlackFilm.Chapters3and
6,respectively,areexpandedversionsofearlieressayspublishedinBarry
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Grant’s Film Genre Reader II (1995) and Chris Holmlund and Justin
Wyatt’sContemporaryAmericanIndependentFilm(2004).
Iwishtoexpressmygratitudetoafewindividualswhohaveeither
readthemanuscriptinitsvariousversionsorhavereadaparticularbook
chapter; all have offered valuable suggestions that, hopefully, render this
book more accessible to a general public who may not be familiar with
suchAfricanDiasporictheoreticalapproachesaswomanismandpostNe-
gritude. I am grateful to David Thorstad, to Sylvie Blum, and to Dave
Compton, who copyedited this book. A heartfelt thanks goes to Chris
Holmlund,whourgedmetowritemoreonHaileGerima’sfilmwork.
Finally,Iwanttoexpressmydeepappreciationtotheacademicand
nonacademic organizations that offered me an opportunity to share my
research on film and African Diasporic culture. A sincere expression of
thanksgoestotheCollegiumforAfricanAmericanResearch,theMod-
ern Language Association, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies,
the Texas A&M English Department’s General L. M. Lewis Lecture
committee,andtheFrenchandSwedishAmericanStudiesassociations.