Hairspray Film Techniques

Citizens throughout American history have often presented the “home of the free” and the “land of the brave” as the perfect nation, filled with perfect families, and more extreme examples of how impeccable the nation truly is. No time presented the United States of America in a more splendid light than the 1950’s. The 1950’s are remembered as a decade of prosperity but as with every time period, multiple historical issues marred this time. The United States encountered political, diplomatic, and social issues throughout this decade (Hewitt and Lawson, 832). Hairspray, the 1988 film by John Waters, was set in the 1950’s and reveals depths of racism and stereotypes during this period, while presenting smaller examples of the issues of sexism, religion, and inequality.

When I saw Hairspray the Musical there were three things that I noticed that were important in making the theatrical performance. Those three things were the acting, production, and how the actors made us, the audience, feel. Each of these things contribute greatly to any performance. I feel that this production of Hairspray hit each of these notes very well.

In the first presentation, I noticed an event called the Greensboro Sit-ins. This was a single event that sparked a nationwide movement and flood of support for the civil rights movement and the issue of business owners withholding service from those who were not white. On February 1st, 1960, 4 students of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at a whites-only lunch table, requested service, and were then denied and asked to leave. When they left, they went to tell campus leaders what had happened and as a result gained people that wanted to participate in the sit-in. It is said that “the next morning twenty-nine neatly dressed male and female [NCATSU] students sat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter,” the same counter where those first four students sat (NorthCarolinaHistory.org). After this happened, protests occurred each week and hundreds of students were showing up at Woolworth’s. Following this, more and more students from around the US were staging sit ins at segregated lunch counters as a form of non-violent protest against discrimination.

Thesis - While Hairspray may portray the Civil Rights Movement in a simplified and somewhat glorified way, it ultimately provides modern day actors of color an opportunity to be casted in theatre, a white-dominated field.

The USA in the 1970’s was not a very friendly society, black and white people could not get along together because of each other’s skin colour, and people were quick to judge on each other’s personality just by looking at their physical appearance. Up to this day, people are still being treated unfairly or looked at differently because of their skin colour all around the globe. Even though the event that this movie is trying to reenact is from the 1970’s, the problems that are being solved in the movie still occurs today. By showcasing the key message of this whole movie, which is overcoming racism, through a particular scene, it inspires and motivates the audience to be kind to others, to not discriminate and to not judge anyone by the colour of their skin but by their soul and their

The rise of Blaxploitation films such as Coffy revived the social problem films of the 1940s, but instead introduced new representations of race and gender as well as the drug crisis of the 1970s. Despite the progressiveness of Blaxploitation films in relation to previous films such as Birth of a Nation–where black characters were exploited through flat, racial stereotypes for the enjoyment of white audiences–they also thrived on the exploitation of evolved black stereotypes of the 1970s; Bogle’s “black buck,”1 characterized by violence and insatiable sexual desire evolved into the 1970s “pimp daddy,” thriving through hustling women, selling drugs, and sending hits when necessary. The representation of black women in films followed a

“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

The first video talks about the world war two. The world war two transforms the lives of many Americans. The American naval base at Hawaii was confronted by the Japanese air Amanda in 1941, bashing out almost all the US navy in just few hours. President Roosevelt got a declaration of war from the congress when he had a joint meeting with them the next day. The second video focuses on the sixties. Four freshman students from North Carolina agriculture and technical college, on February 1, 1960, walked into Woolworth’s store and one of them ordered a cup of coffee. The waiter denied him a cup of coffee. He was denied a cup of coffee because they say they do not serve Negros. The students, instead, insisted and stayed. The next day they went back to the store again with even more supports to rally. The case advanced when later on thousands of black students joined by some white students did a demonstration in the downtown of Greensboro. Over two months, the demonstrations against segregation spread out in nine states and fifty-four cities. Over 70,000 people partake in sit-ins by the end of the year.

From Grease to Rent, musical comedies have been known to enlighten viewers on specific issues while keeping the context of the musical pleasurable and easy to enjoy. The 2007 musical film Hairspray is a satire of Baltimore in the early 1960’s while going through the Civil Rights movement. Through this romantic comedy, the agon of African-American civil rights and other power struggles among race gender, and class are depicted through certain comic techniques to keep the musical lighthearted but meaningful.

Racial segregation highlights the racial theme within both films of Mississippi Burning and American History X. The importance of setting establishes culture during a

The director began the film in color and makes the shift to black and white. which take the audience into the bring of world war II. The black and white highlights key scenes and characters. This also captures how we see world war II and conveys the emotions of a depressing era. Each scene in the movie kept a realistic portal. The black and white interfered the vilonace and sadnesss. Scenes such as the evacuation of the jews from the ghetto, which brought the fear and panic felt by the jews. To the little girl wandering the streets alone with all the madness around. What drew the audience towards her was the fact that the only thing in color was her red coat. Her red coat made a powerful statement of a child innocents.

The use of colour in films during present time is often taken for granted. Colour is a factor modern audiences almost expect however, often filmmakers use colour creatively to convey a message. Throughout the 1920s to 1930s colour in films became highly popular. This essay will explore how Pleasantville has creatively used colour to represent America during the 1950s.

All the time the documentary was putting a message across which basically said that a whole community was being bullied, that all black people were oppressed and oppression was built into their

For many centuries racism has being an ongoing problem and occurrence in many societies, especially in America. Many different measures have been taken to try and diminish the racism that clearly infests this beloved country, but none have ever truly worked. Although these measures have never effectively worked to erase racism out of our society as a whole, some have opened people's’ eyes in creative ways to understand that it is no joke. One measure that has somewhat worked is through media and the arts such as cinema, literature, and paintings. An example of cinema is Jordan Peele’s movie, “Get Out” that portrays racism through a sense of horror that captivates a viewer's mind to see and understand the underlying theme of it all. “Get Out” is about a young African-American man named Chris who falls for a young Caucasian woman named Rose. Together they are going up to meet Rose’s family who put on an act to make it seem like they are somewhat normal, but in reality lure young African-Americans into their home every year to auction them off to a group of older white people so they can use their bodies for pseudo-immortality. Peele’s horrific movie “Get Out” opens a viewer's eyes and mind to the different concepts of racism and how brutal and unjust it is to people of color.

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.