Argumentative Essay: African American Cinema

The final film by Marlon Riggs, Black is…Black Ain't, is concerned with the state of the African American community. This film essentially asks the question, what does it mean to be black? The director and producer, Marlon Riggs, guides viewers along an “an up-front examination of racism, sexism, and homophobia within the black community itself. Bringing together personal stories, interviews, music, history, and performance, Black Is...Black Ain’t asks African Americans: What is black, black enough, or too black?”1

These stereotypes depicted “drug dealers, prostitutes, single mothers, and complacent drag queens” (Harris, 51). In the 1980s, African American filmmakers began to make a name for themselves. These films are “social commentaries, indictments of racism and depictions of ‘everyday’ American lives” (Harris, 51). Compared to the traditional representations of blacks and blackness, New Black cinema takes on this cultural intervention and the recoding of blackness. Harris describes this as “revising the visual codes surrounding black skin on the screen and in the public

Reid covers three genres of African American film types such as comedy, black family film, and black action film whether it be independent and/or commercial films. Under the comedy genre, Reid evaluates three subtypes, which include Blackface Minstrelsy, Hybrid Minstrelsy and Satiric Hybrid Minstrel films. Blackface Minstrelsy was the only film subtype, I was familiar with in African American film history. Hybrid Minstrelsy and Satiric Hybrid Minstrel films were new genres learned from

Many people may not find anything positive about regular African Americans. “According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, in the year 2008 black youths, who make up 16% of the youth population accounted for 52% of juvenile violent crime arrests including 58.5% of youth arrest for homicide and 67% for robbery” (Wikipedia). Spike Lee films such as Malcom X and Get On The Bus depict black people coming together instead of tearing each other down and shed a more positive light on African American culture. There are many stereotypes on every ethnicity and culture, but African Americans in particular may have the worst rap sheet. Spike Less criticized the way African Americans are portrayed in films and television (Yale Bulletin & Calendar). Long before television and film took over as leading forms of entertainment, African Americans have been cast in roles that aided in the perpetuation of racialized stereotypes. During the latter half of the 1800s minstrel shows were a popular form of entertainment among white Americans. These shows portrayed both free and enslaved African Americans (who were mainly played by whites) in an extremely demoralizing fashion. The minstrel show is the birthplace of “Jim Crow”. Jim Crow is most popularly seen in the context of the Jim Crow laws, which enabled white Americans to legally separate themselves from African Americans in nearly every facet of life (Antiracist

The inclusion of Black women and their vital roles within Black press also improved the film’s

First, it is important to note that black films do not necessarily need to have black directors. Arguably, one of the most comedic black films is none other than Coming to America featuring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. Directed by the same individual that made the iconic college fraternity movie Animal

“It is said that seeing is believing but that depends on the source vision”. If one does not experience first-hand they see through another medium which is often film and television. Film is one of the reasons black culture and the black experience is misunderstood and filled with fabricated beliefs. African Americans have been involved in Hollywood films since film earliest forms in the early 20th century. In these early films African Americans was showed in a damaging unpleasant way. African American filmmakers have been are emancipating the black image from Hollywood’s depiction of Blacks. They are challenging the stereotypes and destroying the view of the singular black experience. Black are becoming more involved in the

American actor Anthony Mackie once said “There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.” You have probably seen black male actors play the leading role of a drug addict, drug dealer, abusive husband or a even a thief. Although they do get a chance to be displayed on the media, they more often than ever are represented or viewed as the antagonist. Why? Because they are set up according to certain limitations in which they must obey. The lack of accurate representation on black actors in the media today is the result of prejudice and racism occurring in society. Racism and prejudice which are demonstrated in the films directed by Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever.

The history of African Americans in early Hollywood films originated with blacks representing preconceived stereotypes. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, stirred many controversial issues within the black community. The fact that Griffith used white actors in blackface to portray black people showed how little he knew about African Americans. Bosley Crowther’s article “The Birth of Birth of a Nation” emphasizes that the film was a “highly pro-South drama of the American Civil War and the Period of Reconstruction, and it glorified the role of the Ku Klux Klan” (76). While viewing this film, one would assert that the Ku Klux Klan members are heroic forces that rescue white women from sexually abusive black men. Griffith

According to Tukachinsky, Mastro, and Yarchi, prior to 1930, the role of Blacks on screen were seen involving mostly in criminality and idleness (540). That role still persists until the present, with Blacks usually have to withstand to “longstanding and unfavorable media stereotypes including sexually provocative females and aggressive male thugs” (Tukachinsky 540). 1970’s movies such as The Mack, Black Caesar and Coffy have reinforced this stereotypic image of the black community. The

Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were

Redefining Black Film by Mark A. Reid is the book I’ve selected for the mid-term reading report. This book is an eye opener learning experience as well as a beginning guide to understanding African American film, filmmaking, actor/actress and directors. Mark A. Reid discussed the challenges and obstacles African Americans faced during the turn of the century up and through the civil rights movement of the Sixties including the focus on feminism in black cultural production . Redefining Black Film fits in the history of filmmaking as it relates to the ground breaking movements of African Americans in film as well as production process. The acceptance by white society of African Americans in film was a major part of this book as African American

Between 1970 and 1980 there was a cultural film explosion, there were over 200 films released by major and independent studios that hyped major black characters and themes. Prior to the Blaxploitation era black actors had been relinquished to playing small parts that usually presented stereotyped images of the black race with roles such as waitresses or shoeshine boys. This however all changed when in 1971 when the first successful black film "Sweetback's Baadasss Song" showed a black man coming out on top over the white establishment. The term blaxploitation both helped and destroyed the genre. While many blaxploitation films were box office successes, they also fueled the public's perception of blacks as cold-hearted heroes, gangsters,

Even though these types of movies gave great opportunities to black actors and actresses, I believe that these films do more harm than good. Young audiences, no matter the race, are very impressionable. The black children who grew up watching Blaxploitation movies were being exposed to very explicit, stereotypical content that is to influence how they feel about

From the very beginning of the early stages in American cinema, African Americans had a presence on the silver screen. The twentieth century created a new era of cinema that consisted of films produced for and targeted to an all-Black audience. “Race films” which existed in the United States for over thirty years (1913-1948), were films produced by African Americans that focused on Black themes and highlighted the talents of African American directors, producers, scriptwriters, and actors.