In early-twentieth-century motion picture houses, offensive
stereotypes of African Americans were as predictable as they were
prevalent. Watermelon eating, chicken thievery, savages with
uncontrollable appetites, Sambo and Zip Coon were all
representations associated with African American people. Most of
these caricatures were rendered by whites in blackface.
Few people realize that from 1915 through 1929 a number of African
American film directors worked diligently to counter such racist
definitions of black manhood found in films like D. W. Griffith's
The Birth of a Nation, the 1915 epic that glorified the Ku Klux
Klan. In the wake of the film's phenomenal success, African
American filmmakers sought to defend and redefine black manhood
through motion pictures.
Gerald Butters's comprehensive study of the African American
cinematic vision in silent film concentrates on works largely
ignored by most contemporary film scholars: African
American-produced and -directed films and white independent
productions of all-black features. Using these "race movies" to
explore the construction of masculine identity and the use of race
in popular culture, he separates cinematic myth from historical
reality: the myth of the Euro American-controlled cinematic
portrayal of black men versus the actual black male experience.
Through intense archival research, Butters reconstructs many
lost films, expanding the discussion of race and representation
beyond the debate about "good" and "bad" imagery to explore the
construction of masculine identity and the use of race as device in
the context of Western popular culture. He particularly examines
the filmmaking of Oscar Micheaux, the most prolific and
controversial of all African American silent film directors and
creator of the recently rediscovered Within Our Gates-the legendary
film that exposed a virtual litany of white abuses toward
blacks.
"Black Manhood on the Silent Screen" is unique in that it takes
contemporary and original film theory, applies it to the
distinctive body of African American independent films in the
silent era, and relates the meaning of these films to larger
political, social, and intellectual events in American society. By
showing how both white and black men have defined their own sense
of manhood through cinema, it examines the intersection of race and
gender in the movies and offers a deft interweaving of film theory,
American history, and film history.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
bundle available
