Hollywood and Black Cinema

History of the African-American Cinema

Mainstream Hollywood

• Used Black actors/actresses – Extras in menial domestic roles or as happy ,

genial help– As marginalized talent (singers/dancers)– Rarely given leading roles– Ancillary to white society with no

acknowledgement of issues of their own

Representation

• "Many researchers argue that media portrayals of minorities tend to reflect whites' attitudes toward minorities and, therefore, reveal more about whites themselves than about the varied and lived experiences of minorities"

Hollywood

• Often used white actors in Blackface• Musicals and comedies rather than serious

dramatic roles– Shirley Temple danced regularly with Bill

“Bojangles” Robinson

“Bojangles” Robinson dances with

Shirley Temple in the 1930’s

Parallel Cinema Evolved Outside of the Hollywood System

• Approximately 500 “Race” movies or “race” films were produced for an all-black audience with all-black cast between 1915 and 1950.

• Most were funded and produced by black filmmakers but some were financed by white backers.

Early Black Filmmakers

• George and Perry Johnson founded Lincoln Motion Picture Company in 1916.

• 1918 created Birth of a Race in response to Birth of a Nation

• Content included black soldiers, black families, and black heroes.

• Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Micheaux

• Most prolific black filmmaker of his time, directing over 40 films

• Founded Micheaux Film Corporation in Chicago (1918-1940)

• His films were produced and scripted exclusively by African-Americans

• Worked with actor Paul Robeson• Eventually combined with white investors

Sample Micheaux Films

Sidney Poitier• Upon winning his Best Actor

Oscar for LILLIES OF THE FIELD (1963), Sidney Poitier accepted, on behalf of the countless unsung African-American artists, by acknowledging the "long journey to this moment."

• The post-war era >serious black actor to American moviegoers (Sidney Poitier in A RAISIN IN THE SUN, Dorothy Dandridge in BRIGHT ROAD and Brock Peters in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD), but the promise was greater than reality.

1970s

• Blaxploitation Films such as SHAFT, SUPERFLY, SCREAM, BLACULA ,SCREAM and CLEOPATRA JONES offered flashy lead roles to black actors, but action and grit often overshadowed character development and plotlines.

• Killer of Sheep (1977) – directed, produced, and shot by African American Charles Burnett. The film style is likened to Italian Neorealism.

New Black wave

• Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing -1989)• John Singleton (Boyz in the Hood – 1991)• Box Office Stars in Hollywood• Denzel Washington (Oscar Winner)• Halle Berry (Oscar Winner)• Whoopi Goldberg (Oscar Winner)

2013

• 12 Years a Slave won best picture (Steve McQueen)

TCM Short and Spike Lee• https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDZ2Lmcm-Q

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjctHbKdEmM

Gone With The Wind

1939

Margaret Mitchell

1936 Novel 10 years to writeSelznick purchased rights for $50,000Mitchell’s only novel published during her lifeShe refused to comment or advise on the film after selling her rightsDied in 1949, hit by a speeding car

Cast

•Clark Gable

• Vivian Leigh

Supporting Cast

Hattie McDanielButterfly McQueen

Olivia De HavillandLeslie Howard

Academy Awards

Best Picture David O. SelznickBest Director Victor FlemingBest Actress Vivian LeighBest Supporting Actress Hattie McDanielBest ScreenplayBest CinematographyBest EditingBest Art DirectionBest Actor: Nominated Clark Gable Winner: Robert Donet Goodbye Mr. Chips

Honors

•Ranked 4th in American Film Institute’s Top 100 Best American Films of All Time•Selected to be preserved by National Film Registry•Highest grossing film of all time until 1966

– Adjusted for inflation, it is still is the highest box office earnings

Trivia

•At 3 hours 44 minutes, longest film up to 1939•One of the first films shot in technicolor•AFI’s # 1 movie line quote: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”

Atlanta Premiere

•3 days of activities starting Dec. 15, 1939•Hattie McDaniel and other black actors prevented from attending because of Georgia’s Jim Crow laws•Clark Gable threatened to boycott but Hattie McDaniel convinced him to attend.

Box Office Gross

Production budget estimated at $3.9 millionActual Domestic $198,676,459Actual Foreign $400,176,459Adjusted for inflation: all time box office gross #1