1. Hollywood and Black Cinema
History of the African-American Cinema

2. 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

3. 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"

4. Hollywood Often used white actors in Blackface
Musicals and comedies rather than serious dramatic roles
Shirley Temple danced regularly with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson

5. “Bojangles” Robinson dances with
Shirley Temple in the 1930’s

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Oscar Micheaux

10. Oscar Micheaux
Most prolific black filmmaker of his time, directing over 40 films
Founded Micheaux Film Corporation in Chicago ( )
His films were produced and scripted exclusively by African-Americans
Worked with actor Paul Robeson
Eventually combined with white investors

11. Sample Micheaux Films

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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)

15. 2013
12 Years a Slave won best picture (Steve McQueen)

16. TCM Short and Spike Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDZ2Lmcm-Q

17. Gone With The Wind
1939

19. Margaret Mitchell
1936 Novel 10 years to write Selznick purchased rights for $50,000 Mitchell’s only novel published during her life She refused to comment or advise on the film after selling her rights Died in 1949, hit by a speeding car

20. Cast
Clark Gable
Vivian Leigh

21. Supporting Cast
Hattie McDaniel Butterfly McQueen Olivia De Havilland Leslie Howard

22. Academy Awards Best Picture David O. Selznick
Best Director Victor Fleming
Best Actress Vivian Leigh
Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel
Best Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Art Direction
Best Actor: Nominated Clark Gable Winner: Robert Donet Goodbye Mr. Chips

23. 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

24. 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”

25. 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.

26. Box Office Gross
Production budget estimated at $3.9 million Actual Domestic $198,676,459 Actual Foreign $400,176,459 Adjusted for inflation: all time box office gross #1