Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is the first major collection of criticism on Black American cinema. From the pioneering work of Oscar Micheaux and Wallace Thurman to the Hollywood success of Spike Lee, Black American filmmakers have played a remarkable role in the development of the American film, both independent and mainstream.

In this volume, the work of early Black filmmakers is given serious attention for the first time. Individual essays consider what a Black film tradition might be, the relation between Black American filmmakers and filmmakers from the diaspora, the nature of Black film aesthetics, the artist's place within the community, and the representation of a Black imaginary. Black American Cinema also uncovers the construction of Black sexuality on screen, the role of Black women in independent cinema, and the specific question of Black female spectatorship. A lively and provocative group of essays debate the place and significance of Spike Lee

Of crucial importance are the ways in which the essays analyze those Black directors who worked for Hollywood and whose films are simplistically dismissed as sell-outs, to the Hollywood "master narrative," as well as those "crossover" filmmakers whose achievements entail a surreptitious infiltration of the studios. Black American Cinema demonstrates the wealth of the Black contribution to American film and the complex course that contribution has taken.

Contributors: Houston Baker, Jr., Toni Cade Bambara, Amiri Baraka, Jacquie Bobo, Richard Dyer, Jane Gaines, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Ron Green, Ed Guerrero, bell hooks, Phyllis Klotman, Ntongele Masilela, Clyde Taylor, and Michele Wallace.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Diawara's collection gets closer to articulating what is "black" about black American cinema than any previous volume on the topic. Individual essays attempt to define a black aesthetic, to isolate black narrative traditions such as slave narratives or the use of narrative repetition, to explore an African American approach to melodrama, and even to define a black cinematic grammar (Jane Gaines on Oscar Micheaux). The book favors independent filmmakers, with three revisionist essays on Micheaux (by Ron Green, Gaines, Tom Cripps), two dealing with Julie Dash (Diawara, Toni Cade Bambara), one on Isaac Julien (Henry Louis Gates Jr.), and one that combines discussions of Charles Burnett, Haile Gerima, and other members of the Los Angeles school of black filmmakers (Ntongele Masilela). Amiri Baraka dismisses Spike Lee as a "buppie," while Houston Baker labels his early independent films "minor masterpieces of cultural undercover work," which trace the awakening consciousness of members of a silenced, disempowered underclass. Richard Dyer contributes an excellent piece on Car Wash as a black musical; Clyde Taylor provides a remarkable reading of A Soldier's Story; and Jacqueline Bobo and bel hooks present original discussions of black female spectatorship. Other contributors include Stephen Best, Ed Guerrero, Jacquie Jones, Phyllis Klotman, Dan Streible, and Michele Wallace. Both general and academic readers at all levels. J. Belton; Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick