FTV30006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Melvin Van Peebles, Sidney Poitier, Oscar Micheaux
Week 7
Blaxpoitation
Screening: Foxy Brown (Hill 1974)
Video Essay 6 – 8 min due next Friday
Early Black Cinema
No place in Hollywood cinema, truly independent
‘White’ Cinemas were segregated
Pioneer was Oscar Micheaux who directed a number of silent and made the transition to
talkies. Also wrote a number of novels
Most significant films – Within Our gates
African American representation in the 50s
Suggestion of progress by the 50s – actor Juanita Moore gained acclaim for Imitation of Life
In 1954, Otto Preminger independently financed the all-black Carmen Jones
Worth noting Preminger challenged Hollywood consistently, but also pushed the Code with
films like The Man with the Golden Arm (heroin) and Anatomy of a Murder (discussion of
rape and sexual function)
By the 60s the civil rights movement was underway and a period of intense social change
Political unrest, increasing visibility/voice for black America
Martin Luther King and Malcolm X assassinated
Belafonte and Poitier
Sidney Poitier emerges as one of the central box office draws during the late 60s
Sweet Sweetback
Melvin Van Peebles ‘ Sweet Sweetback Badass’
Made for $150,000 it was intesnsely political, an attack on a white society that oppressed
people of colour
A Market for ‘Cool’
The attention – both positive and negative towards Sweet Sweetback suggested the viability
of a marginal black cinema
Although ultimately about empowerment, it’s also worthy to note that the subject of these
films was often crime and drug addiction
Operating within an exploitative mode (hence blaxploitation) this cycle of films challemged
prejudice by representations of ‘cool’
It took tropes representative of oppression or difference, and re-interpreted them as things
of value
So the ‘fro, which refused to conform to white standards of hairstyle, became a central
defining feature of both the aesthetic and the narrative
Document Summary
Video essay 6 8 min due next friday. Pioneer was oscar micheaux who directed a number of silent and made the transition to talkies. Suggestion of progress by the 50s actor juanita moore gained acclaim for imitation of life. In 1954, otto preminger independently financed the all-black carmen jones. Worth noting preminger challenged hollywood consistently, but also pushed the code with films like the man with the golden arm (heroin) and anatomy of a murder (discussion of rape and sexual function) By the 60s the civil rights movement was underway and a period of intense social change. Sidney poitier emerges as one of the central box office draws during the late 60s. Made for ,000 it was intesnsely political, an attack on a white society that oppressed people of colour. The attention both positive and negative towards sweet sweetback suggested the viability of a marginal black cinema.
