Contents 4 Interview By ELlZABETI-I JACKSON Independentfilmmaker Barbara McCullough hears the music ofspirits past and brings itinto the present in herfilms. 8 Displaced Desires By STEPHEN BEST In Young Soul Rebels director IsaacJulien winds a suspensefUl drama ofsexuality andinterracial desire. CRITICS FORUM: 14 The Culture ofChauvinism erheide By lErnest Dickerson takes the director's chair. i es a year by Sojourner Productions, Inc., a non­ po' corporation organized and incorporated in the Oi trict of Columbia. It is co-produced with the Black Film Institute of the University of the District of Co umbia. Subscriptions are $12 per year for Features individuals, $24 per year for institutions. Add $10 per year for overseas subscriptions. Subscription requests and correspondence should be sent to PO Box 18665, Washington, DC 20036. Send all other correspondence 2 and submissions to the above address; submissions must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. No Film Clips part of this'publication may be reproduced without RememberingAlex Haley, Filmmakers On Violence, and more. written consent of the publisher. Logo and contents copyright (c) Sojourner Productions, Inc., and in the name of individual contributors. 11 Black Film Review welcomes submissions from Books writers, but we prefer that you first query with a letter. Diary ofa Young Soul Rebel All solicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. Black Film Review has signed a code of practices with the 12 National Writers Union, 13 Astor Place, Reviews 7th Floor, New York, NY 10003. Finding Christa This issue of Black Film Review was produced with the assistance of grants from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation, the D.C. Commiss'on on the Arts and Humanities, the National Endo ment for the Arts and the John D. and Catherine T. ac hur Foundation. FILM CLIPS

REMEMBERING ALEX town ofHenning, Tennessee. When the novel was adapted white product ofa plantation HALEY After 20 years ofmilitary service into a 6-part ABC miniseries, affair who was forced to seek her in the Coast Guard, he began "Roots" immediately became the destiny in the post-Civi~ War writing for magazines. He did a defining television event ofthe South, is currently in develop­ series ofprobing one-on-one '70s and gave America a lasting ment at CBS. The miniseries is "We'll never know where we're interviews with celebrities for emotional experience about expected to air sometime near the going until we know where we Playboy and helped to popularize African American history. It was end ofthis year.-Roy came from," Malcolm X once this journalistic genre. It seems the highest-rated miniseries ofits Campanella, II told Alex Haley. Haley had not appropriate that one ofhis last time, and it revolutionized written Roots yet-it was the '60s efforts was hosting "Dialogue primetime television storytelling and he was working with the FILMMAKERS ON with Black Filmmakers," a series with its novelization ofan epic revered pan-Africanist on his first VIOLENCE ofinterviews for Black Entertain­ story. book, The Autobiography of ment Television. The huge ratings success of Malcolm X But Haley, who was Haley was always quick to "Roots" in 1977 was a surprise to fond ofmentioning Malcolm, Producers George Jackson and point out that he was inspired to television executives. The understood the profound Doug McHenry, filmmakers ~ecome a writer by the conventional wisdom that whites significance ofbeing intimate Warrington Hudlin and Robert storytelling ofhis maternal would not be interested in the with one's past history. He had Townsend, and Oscar-nomi­ grandmother. As a young boy he epic story ofan Aftican American already begun the arduous twelve nated director and screenwriter listened as she traced his was proven wrong. LeVar years ofresearching and writing John Singleton were among the compelling family history Burton, who played the young that became Roots, an unprec­ well-known African American through generations, all the way Kunta Kinte, observed that edented chronicle ofthe African filmmakers who criticized the back to a man she called "the "Roots" served to "galvanize the American experience. Over the media for sensationalizing violent African." country, finally bringing us to years, he lectured on college incidents at movie screenings at As he began his writing terms on a national level with one campuses, sharing his story like a the National Association of career, these stories stayed with ofthe ugliest episodes in modern-day griot with gatherings Theater Owners (NATO)/ him, and he began to search for American history, slavery." ofBlack students from Howard ShoWest convention in Las documentation that would Unfortunately, and Haley University to Harvard. It was at Vegas in February. All agreed authenticate his family history. admitted to feeling badly about such a gathering that I first met that it was not the films which His astonishing feat ofgenealogi­ this, it did not open future doors and heard Alex Haley. I say caused the violence and discussed cal detective work across three for Black actors and filmmakers "heard" because it was through what theater owners can do to continents resulted in the Pulitzer as much as expected. the power and humanity ofhis prevent these incidents. Prize-winning Roots. Haley The popularity ofthe TV voice that his imaginative McHenry made the point that "a became the first African Ameri­ series led to a sequel, "Roots: The storytelling enveloped you. cauldron ofracism" has created can writer to trace his origins Next Generation," that brought On February 10, 1992, the social conditions that give rise back to his ancestral beginnings. the family's story up through the shortly after midnight, Alex to such conflicts. In doing so, he told the story of turbulent 1960s. It concludes Haley died unexpectedly from a "It is an issue ofmedia 30 million Americans ofAfrican with Haley coming ofage as a heart attack in Seattle, Washing­ responsibility not to engage in a descent, made it possible for us to writer. ton, where he was scheduled to pre-release (witch hunt' as to share in his profound journey of "Queen," a 6-hour speak. He was 70 years old. whether or not there will be discovery, and won our admira­ miniseries about Haley's paternal He was born in Ithaca, New violence," notedJackson. The tion and respect. grandmother, a half-black, half- York, but grew up in the rural incidents ofviolence happen

2 Black Film Review mostl during a picture s opening youngest person and the first tribute. by the American Film Institute weekend. After that .t is the African American nominated Winners ofthe 1992 with its highly prestigious continued emp asis in the media Best Director in the history ofthe International Black Independent Lifetime Achievement Award. An that turns 0 e· ident into a Academy Awards. In addition, Film, Video & Screenplay edited version ofthe event was FIu a ded lrhe Singleton received a second Competition include Daughters of broadcast on NBC as a television the press nomination for Best Original the Dust 0ulie Dash & Arthur special in April. its Screenplay for his debut film ]afa) for Best Film, Kokoyah: In another tribute, Sony future. Boyz N the Hood The film, Beast ofthe North (Malcolm Pictures, where Poitier is based, e orts ignore which grossed over $57 million Johnson) for Best Feature has named its main administra­ e problem at the box office and is now Screenplay and Dearly Beloved tion building after him. This articular film, available on videocassette, tells (Saundra Sharp) for Best Short well-known edifice was previ­ such Dickerson's Juice, the story ofthree teenage boys Screenplay. ously MGM's Irving Thalberg is the or violence, the coming ofage in South Central Building, named for the famed e foundation Los Angeles. CAMPANELLA, head ofproduction during the for ent to ban or censor "This is something that had LANUEVILLE WIN DGA studio's "golden years" in the suc t the session, never happened before," said 1930s. AWARDS resIdent, William Singleton. "It sure made the Fano . ealed that exhibitors white boys mad."-George Hill SLAYING ASIAN ha-e put under pressure by Roy Campanella won the STEREOlYPES pa 0 community leaders and WOMEN IN THE Directors Guild ofAmerica Ian r to pull some ofthe SPOTLIGHT (DGA) award for his PBS/ it comes down to Wonderworks television movie Women Make Movies, the thea e being unable to safely "Brother Future" at an awards nonprofit distributor offilms and p a e movies because of The Black Filmmakers Hall of ceremony in Beverly Hills in tapes by and about women, is o e ce then the question is Fame's 19th Annual Oscar March. Campanella becomes the now distributing the award­ r e ofwhether or not such Micheaux Awards Ceremony, first African American filmmaker winning hour-long videotape get made. held in February in Oakland, to win the DGA award for a Slaying the Dragon, produced and Hile Townsend attributed California, spotlighted the history feature film and the first in the directed by San Francisco the riolence to exploitative and contributions ofBlack dramatic day category. Originally videomaker Deborah Gee. marketing campaigns that women in film and television. broadcast on PBS, "Brother Slaying the Dragon is a compre­ emphasize negative and violent The theme, "Black Women in Future" has also been honored by hensive look at media stereotypes Black stereotypes, the other Film and Television: Portraits the National Black Programming ofAsian and Asian American filmmakers explained that these and Portrayals," focused Consortium and the Colurnbus women since the silent era. . cidents would happen regard- attention on these contributions International Film and Video From the racist use ofwhite ofthe showing ofthe films. and the creative talent that still Festival. actors to portray Asians in early Producers Jackson and McHenry needs to be tapped. Eric Lanueville won for an Hollywood films, to Suzie Wong convinced the movie executives, The 1992 Hall ofFame episode of"I'll Fly Away." and 1950s geisha girls, to the exhibitors and filmmakers Inductees were actresses Rosalind Lanueville previously won for a Asian American anchorwomen of present to pledge their support Cash ("Sister, Sister"), Helen one-hour episode of"L.A. Law" today, the videotape shows for a campaign ofpublic service Martin ("227") and Madge in 1989. Among other African through film clips and interviews announcements to run in Sinclair ("TrapperJohn, M.D."), American directors who have how stereotypes ofexoticism and theaters, targeting the issue of actress and writer Denise won are Thomas Carter, who docility have affected the violence. Nicholas ("Room 222"), and received the award in 1984 for a perception ofAsian American producer, director and editor one-hour episode of"Hill Street women and the effects ofthese SINGLETON GETS Madeline Anderson ("Black Blues." images on their lives. As the ACADEMY NOD Journal" and "Sesame Street"). recent protests against The Year of Actress Tempestt Bledsoe ("The ALMNG LEGEND the Dragon and Miss Saigon show, Cosby Show") received the Asian Americans are organizing When the Oscar nominations Clarence Muse Youth Award and to challenge enduring stereotypes were announced this year, John the late Dorothy Dandridge was and to fight for the opportunity Sidney Poitier, the legendary Singleton at 23, became the honored with a retrospective to represent themselves. screen star, was recently honored Black Film Review 3 By Elizabeth Jackson

Filmmaker Barbara McCullough

nitially interested in dance, Black folk. In this ftIm, ritual is used to evoke the spirit-the Barbara McCullough tool used to initiate change. decided instead to pursue a Also produced in 1981 was McCullough's short, The World career in the visual arts, and Saxophone Quartet This film provided a glance at the innova­ began to experiment with tive jazz group in concert and conversation. McCullough's photography, video and film. most recent work, Horace Tapscott: Music Griot(1992), is an McCullough first produced Shopping hour-long examination ofthe man and the mind ofthis Bag Spirits and Freeway Fetishes: Reflections brilliant keyboardist. on Ritual Space (1980), a 60-minute experimental documen­ McCullough has served as the production coordinator, tary that investigated the use ofritual in artists' work and how national productions, for KCET-TV in Los Angeles, and is this ritual touched upon their collective, Mrican pasts. A currendy production manager for Pacific Data Images, a second film that year, Fragments, reexamined the theme. company that creates computer animated imagery for motion In 1981, McCullough produced Water Ritual #1: An pictures and television. A graduate ofthe University ofCalifor­ Urban Rite ofPurification, a poetic film that explored the use nia at Los Angeles School ofFilm, Barbara McCullough spoke ofritual for exorcising the societal frustration that engulfs with Elizabeth Jackson for Black Film Review.

4 Black Film Review Black Film Review: You are near comple­ mother, a creative person, an emerging Simone. tion 0 yo r fourt in ependent piece artist. The other women I kn~ didn't Later, Julie started and completed Hora,ce a seo t: Music Grot-a film 10 see themselves either. Diary ofan Aftican Nun her first quarter years in the · g. Why this title, and When I became interested in photog­ at UClA. She was bright, unassuming, why this 5 ject? raphy, video, then film, it was out ofan loved the Mrican "affects"-braids, Barbara cCullough: I chose the title interest to make something from what color, makeup. She was serious; she because a griot IS a storyteller in the already existed, images from the com­ knew from the beginning that she African tradition It is unto him that the munity where I lived. wanted to make film. My other female people look for the remembering. In this classmates included Sharon Alile Larkin. film Horace not only remembers BFR: So your initial impetus arose from a In fact, my son Cephren played the through music but also the telling ofthe deep-seated need? pesky little boy in her film A Different oral . 0 ofthe musical life ofthe Los McCullough: Yes, exactly. A need to Image. I also went to school with Carrol Angeles community. relieve myselfby making our image accessible to others. A need to show the Parrot Blue and o. Funmilayo B• our ather was a musician. Did this endless lifestyles and expressions which Makarah-who are still very active in have an ing to do with your focusing are part ofthe fiber ofBlack life. this community ofBlack women un·s material? filmmakers. cCullough: I have always been BFR: Did you know'any Black women mesmerized by anyone who had the - filmmakers when you started? BFR: On Sharon Alile Larkin's film, A Different Imag~ you hold credit as a po,ver to play music because it was an McCullough: No, but I knew a few sound assistant. In fact, many of the art form I grew up around. I've been Black women artists, and I looked at people you mentioned are crew for each them in wonderment because they had m tified by the art process that allows other's films. UCLA seems to have ce­ master musical artists to hear what they fo"und a way to express themselves. They mented your connections and fostered hear, £Iter it through their bodies, and had educated themselves and, through your sense of support for one another­ transform it into something lyrical, hard work, garnered the facility to even 20 years later. rhythmic, tender. This is why I selected express themselves in a creative medium. McCullough: At UClA it was unwrit­ Horace Tapscott as my subject. I knew about Bettye Saar and the ten philosophy that you weren't just a cultural base- ofher imagery, assemblages student but an independent filmmaker • It sounds as if musicians are almost and collages bejewelled in the icons of erect to you. existing in a -community ofindependent IcCullough: I've always considered her heritage. I knew ofher altars and filmmakers who supported each other's' tabernacles that evoked the spirits, gods em the culture bearers, the "masterful work as best they could. Most ofthe and ancestors ofan Mrican past. ones" who carry the force oflife, the time, no one had any real financial support, and it took some ofus years to songs ofthe ancestors, and the voices of BFR: When you decided to enroll in UCLA our gods from one generation to film school during the '70s-the magical complete our projects. But the film another. decade that produced Charles Bumett, school was our factory and production Larry Clark, Billy Woodbury, Ben Caldwell, facility. Each one ofus was a mini film FR: The idea of "music griot" seems to Haile Gerima-you and Julie Dash found company'producing our very special • corporate a sense of responsibility to­ yourselves struggling together. works. We basically learned from each the Black community. McCullough: Julie was the first Black other and struggled through a system McCullough: My curiosity about the female filmmaker I had known. I met that wasn't particularly nurturing. I artistic process has extended to how her the summer before school started don't think that the faculty really artists fulfill their obligation, not only to when she was attending AFI [the thought that there was a life for our their art but to their community. American Film Institute] and editing her work beyond film school. Horace is into community-sharing: film Four Women in the garage ofa BFR: Did the feminist agenda surface teaching, learning, exposing. And in the mutual friend. A fire in the house where during this time? 10 years that I have been making this she was rooming destroyed most ofher McCullough: Yes, and that is why the fum, his commitment has grown personal belongings-butJulie still women ofcolor ultimately joined exponentially. worked! This was the first time I had together-to form a sort ofcollective to 8FR: How did you evolve as a filmmaker? ever seen a Black female image in film support each other's creative endeavors. McCullough: When I looked around, I that reflected my community. And what We knew we were dealing with sexism didn't see a reflection ofmy own interior knocked me out was that her character andracism. complexity. No reflection ofme as a was dancing to the music ofNina BFR: Your work, like Julie's and Sharon's,

Black Film Review 5 eals eavily· Africanisms, ritual. Your gestures like a priestess signaling a BFR: It sometimes seems as if our collec­ ea fil, Shopping Bag Spirits and protective spirit. She spoke in tongues. tive memories are becoming more dim. eeway Fet·shes: Reflections on Ritual McCullough: True. I recently heard the Space, • corporates all of these things. BFR: It sounds similar to what South broadcast ofa speech by the late James African songstress Miriam Makeba says her were the origins of this work? Baldwin which was made when he was a cCullough: I knew a woman named mother, as priestess and healer of her village, went through. university professor. Baldwin obviously Senga engudi who did sculpture using McCullough: Yes, what may have enjoyed his students but could not nylon stockings. She said it related to the seemed like odd behavior was, for me, a reconcile the fact that so much ofwhat elasticity ofthe human body from step backwards in time to the move­ he understood from his life and times tender tight beginnings to sagging ends. ments and motions ofsome ancient was so foreign to them. I decided to document her work and Mrican ceremony that I had never found myselfunder the freeways ofLos BFR: Was this just the difference between witnessed before in my present life but one generation and another? Angeles as she wrapped freeway pillars had felt and experienced in the past. McCullough: That, and a lapse of with juju bags ofstockings, sand and information and, ultimately, perspective straw. She wrote the names ofour BFR: All of this became Water Ritual? A due to the fact that what is disseminated children on these fetishes as they swayed spiritual excoriation, protection and every day doesn't tell us much about our 25 feet high around those support transformation borne out of a kind of Black lives, much less Black heroes. pillars. collective African consciousness? McCullough: Exactly. All my life has • Your brilliant determination and that BFR:Why? been spent collecting information, sense o your female colleagues has allowed you McCullough: She wanted to infuse impressions, visual and auditory signals, o preva·l-but Id's be real. This fight for magical energy into a purely utilitarian spiritual cues that tell me that within some semi-accurate representation ofwho environment. The quiet simplicity and this culture ofours is something that we "wen are s been a bitch, right? And film profound starkness ofher work touched, cannot afford to lose. We must remem­ continued on page 30 amazed and motivated me because ofits ber, and we must pass it on. unique sense ofthe Mricanisms and the femaleness. Though her textures were coarse, the core ofher work was soft and full oflove. D YES, I want an AAFS T-Shirt! BFR: Your Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Enclosed is $12 for each shirt Purificationcontinued this exploration (all white on black, size XL) into the application ofAfricanisms onto .ATLANTA "modernity." D YES, I want to be on AAfS AFRICAN ,------McCullough: A friend ofmine had a FILM Mailing List $5 annually. nervous breakdown. Her friends decided SOCIETY $12X __ T-Shirts= __ to care for her at home, were watching her around the clock, and asked that I Mailing List =$5­ come over and lend support. On the one Total = hand, I was shocked and confused by what I saw, but, on the other, there was something very familiar. My friend was naked in a bare room. She talked to herselfin rhymes and drew cir~les on the Name _ floor. She stood and danced as ifshe were part ofan ancient ceremony. She Address looked as ifshe were in the process of exorcising herselfofsome energy she couldn't control. Everything she did was City _ highly ritualized. She engaged in unconscious symbolic action by creating State Zip _ a circle around herselfwithin which she Make your check payable to the At!anta African Film Society withdrew for protection.. She made POST OFFICE BOX 50319 • ATLANTA, GA 30302

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Black Film Review 7 Perhaps more than afilm director, Isaac Julien can be viewed as avideo jockey of contemporary Black British cinema. Consistently and complexly, films such as Territories (1985), Looking for Langston (1989) and, now, Young Soul Rebels use music to enact adynamic tension between pleasure and identity.

By Stephen Best

n Territories, Julien past and to show how used the American this relationship is in­ folk music of Joan flected by questions of Baez and reggae identity and sexuality. In music (the sound-sys­ Young Soul Rebels, his tem and dance-hall type) latest film, Julien uses to thematize the hybridity American soul and funk of the annual celebration music as a means of of the London Carnival. arriving at an opposi­ He used the blues and Mo Sesay and Valentine Nonyela in ascene from Young Soul Rebels. tional, political space in house music in Looking which to image the for Langston to articulate an understanding of contradictory, liberatory nature of Black gay the role of the present in the construction of the desire.

Opposite, director Isaac Julien.

8 Black Film Review

Ostensibly a murder mystery, Young like and, in fact, be collusive with state Several scenes later, following TJ's Soul Rebels begins with the killing ofTJ, strategies ofpolicing. murder, Caz passes this same site during a Black gay man. As the narrative Consider the context and nature of the day. The police, who have roped off unfolds, it reveals for us the effects of the murder in Young Soul Rebels and the the tree where the murder occurred, spot this killing on TJ's friends-Chris, who acts ofsurveillance it triggers: In the Caz and fIX upon him, for the moment, is straight, and Caz, who is gay. Around film's opening scene, we see TJ emerge as a potential suspect. In the next scene, the suspenseful drama are wound from a dark and dense thicket oftrees. It Chris passes this same spot and he, like numerous subplots ofinterracial desire. is late at night. TJ carries a boombox Caz, is spotted by the police and Ultimately, the role ofsexuality in the and fiddles with it until he finds the cCpoliced" for the duration ofthe scene. conflict between cultural forms and the Soul Patrol pirate radio broadcast. The The murder scene and the subse­ multiple dimensions ofBlack masculin­ camera tracks him as he walks in front of quent park scenes establish a relationship ity become as important as the killing. a gathering ofwhite men who are in the between Black desire and the terror of Consider the other major whiteness. Julien works to element ofthe film's begin­ unravel the fIXity ofthat ning: the Parliament cut "P­ terror in the Black imagina­ Funk Wants To Get Funked" tion by creating a space for places the audience ,through Black male desire ofwhite sound, to use the words ofthe male bodies and, further, for tune itsel£ in "the home of a more sexually and racially the extraterrestrial brothers," ambivalent desire for Black an-other (alien) space beyond men's bodies. This is not to punk's anarchic rejection of deny the extent to which the Britishness and reggae's slippages between policing nationalism. This new space and cruising are deeply Julien creates is not con­ meaningful to Julien. strained by antagonisms of As with most ofthe other musical forms like punk, recent films that deal with whose followers were race­ Black gay subculture, Young blind until they hooked up Soul Rebels cannot dissociate with reggae-whose own surveillance from the ques­ devotees were, for the most tion ofdesire. These elements part, blind to the issue of can be found in Julien's different sexualities. In fact, Lookingfor Langston in its Julien frequently uses music representation ofccthe Club," in this film to provide the a private and safe space for viewer not only with a kind of pleasuring, free ofccthugs and historical perspective, but also police." Marlon Riggs' to highlight these musical Tongues Untied suggests this forms as elements in conflict. relationship, as well, in the The paradox is that, in Young Sophie Okonedo and Valentine Nonyela in ascene from Young Soul Rebels. film's interrogation ofthe gay Soul Rebels, "psychic" migra- white male gaze as a structur- tion to this domain ofconflict ing element ofparticular is often accomplished through spatial park to get down to the business of networks ofdesire in arenas such as The displacement. cruising. When TJ stops to lean against Castro. Less critical and self-reflective Unfortunately, the "hustle and a tree, he is approached by a white man, analyses emerge in a film like Jennie bustle" ofdisplacement can serve as a who we suspect has been watching TJ Livingston's Paris Is Burning, which strategy for social control. In colonial for the duration ofthe scene; he asks, steers clear ofinterrogating its own and racial politics, this tactic is called "Wot's your name?" TJ responds, privileging ofthe ethnographic gaze. divide-and-conquer, though I refer, in "Name? You a policeman or what?" The Young Soul Rebe/1 representation ofa this case, to the way in which gay elision between cruising and policing is white male project ofsurveillance­ practices ofcruising can be made to look revealed in all its nakedness. cruising andpolicing-that occurs in

10 Black Film Review the same space and works on the same bodies is ofa piece with a recent debate on the desire for Black men's bodies and the desire ofBlack gay men that cen­ tered around the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, particularly around his works Black Males (1982) and Black Book (1986). On a certain level, Julien's and Mapplethorpe s arks suggest similar things about the ays in which Black men s bodies circulate in particu­ lar political, social cultural and erotic spaces. Young Soul Rebels represents a kind ofthird-stage deconstruction ofa currently popular analysis ofthe Black male body in Mapplethorpe's oeuvre. T a date, the debate has taken two forms. In one, Mapplethorpe has been read as the archetypical proponent of"the look, ' the white male gaze ofmastery that locks the nude studies ofBlack men in a racial hierarchy that is historically collusive with the power and privilege of hite masculinity. Under this optic, the By Pat Aufderheide Black male nude serves as the necessarily contradictory sign ofa set ofwhite male Diary ofa Young Soul Rebel fears and fantasies-"the hypersexed By Isaac Julien and Colin MacCabe buck" and its orgiastic/fantasmatic London, England: British Film inverse reflection, "the Black daddy." In Institute/Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1991, paperback, 217 other words, Black images satisfY white pp., $18.95 [$45 cloth]. pleasure. In another, the tendency has been to read the images as the sites ofcompet­ ing, envious desires. Images ofBlack Isaac Julien is aBriton with roots in the Caribbean whose film works­ men, as they are consumed by Black Territories (1984), The Passion of Remembrance (with Maureen Blackwood, men, trigger feelings ofambivalence 1986), This Is Not an AIDS Advertisement(1988), Looking for Langston precisely because ofthe presence ofa (1989)-have both captured and shaped aconsciousness. He works in the competing level ofconsumption by internationally respected Sankofa FilmNideo Collective with other Britons of white men for the same images. This color; the workshop was created by the and-riow-for-something-completely­ position, like the first, gets snagged on different TV Channel 4. the question ofthe objectification ofthe Colin MacCabe is awell-known British film theorist-turned-administrator. Black male body and its attendant As producer of challenging work in the British Film Institute Production anxieties. Board-work showcased at Channel 4-he has found away for theory to meet In his films, Julien attempts to move practice. beyond objectification towards more The two of them worked together, as director and producer, respectively, of murky and difficult questions oflove Young Soul Rebels, athriller that not only reincarnates amoment in recent and the intersecting passions that English racial history but also boldly addresses long-muffled, enduring circulate between Black men and white. conflicts of gender, sexuality and desire. At the level ofnarrative, Julien places continued on page 23 continued on page 29

Black Film Review 11 FINDING CHRISTA By Valerie Smith

MythsaboutBlack mothersabound inAmerican culture. Black mothers

often loom large tIS figures ofself­ sacrifice and boundless love in sto­ ries by Black women. In popular accounts offamily life authored by men-Moynihan, Moyers, and Singleton, for example-Black mothers are often blamed for the emasculation ofBlack men and, consequently, the perceived decline in the quality ofBlack community life·

12 Black Film Review inding Christa, which explores family's life in the late '50s. Interviews conventional documentary techniques: one mother's decision to give up with friends and relatives, however, archival footage, interviews and still her four- ear-old daughter for confirm Billops' account ofthe limited photographs.. But here, the film moves adoption and the reunion options available to single mothers at the into what the scholar Barbara Lekatsas ben een the n 0 omen twenty-one time. In one striking moment, Billops calls a "surreal theatrical interlude" in years ater restores a much needed sense reflects upon the fact that although those which playwright George C. Wolfe, ofbalance to representations ofmaternal close to her did not want her to give up Billops and Christa perform. Wolfe plays love "and po, er the child, no one offered to keep Christa the role ofthe emcee ofa mother­ Finding Christa, a bold and brilliant or was able to help her in significant daughter recital for which Billops is documentary written, auditioning. Billops, produced and directed by dressed in a frilly, white Camille Billops and James dress with a blue sash, Hatch, is Billops' own story. waving a feather boa, The Elm opens with a attempts unsuccessfully to photograph ofthe four­ lip-synch to her own voice year-old Christa as she yodelling on the appeared shortly before soundtrack while a pianist, Billops gave her up. The seated behind her, accom­ adult Christa speaks in a panies her. Billops, clearly plaintive voice that reveals uncomfortable in this role, her sense oflonging and seems to associate meeting betrayal: "My last memory Christa with confronting ofyou is when you drove her own failure. offand left me at the As Billops takes her bow Children's Home Society. I and turns to thank the didn't understand why you pianist, she discovers, to her left me. I felt so alone. Why horror, that the accompa­ did you leave me? It's been nist is her daughter. The so long since I felt com­ camera then cuts back to plete." The film struggles to Billops.in her loft. It is in answer Christa's question. this moment, in a voice­ In the loft she shares over, that Billops relates her with Hatch in NewYork decision to let Christa visit. City, Billops plays a tape she While the first section of has received from Christa the film focuses on Billops' after a separation ofmore George ·C. Wolfe in ascene from Finding Christa. story, the second centers on than twenty years. Billops Christa-describing her life explains her decision to a friend calmly ways. after she was left at the Children's Home and directly: "I was trying to give her The reasons b.ehind Billops' choice are Society. Through interviews with something else, because I felt she needed as complex as the assortment ofvoices Christa, her adoptive siblings and a mother and a father. I'm·sorry about that contribute to the film. From the adoptive mother, Margaret Liebig, we the pain it caused Christa as a young. testimonies, we learn that Billops gave learn thatshe found what appears to be a child, but I'm not sorry about the act." Christa up because she did not think that· nurturing, loving family. Liebig, a singer, The film then takes viewers back to she would be a good mother; she lacked enco.uraged.Christa's love ofmusic. This the community in Los Angeles, where sufficient family support; she wanted to support and encouragement notwith­ Billops and her family lived· and where be free to develop her talents as a visual' standing, Christa is· shown through she made her choice. Clips from home artist. One cousin, Bertha, believes that pantomime and home video sequences movies taken at Billops' baby shower and she gave up her child in order to be with to be'unhappywith both her personal still photographs ofChrista being bathed Hatch,. who is white and'whom she and herprofessionall\fe. Liebig encour­ and playing under the Christmas.tree re­ married years later. _- ages.herto find her biological mother in create the apparent joys ofthis "perfect" Up to this point, the film relies upon order to satisfy her longing.

Black Fibn Review 13 The film does not idealize the re­ year's Sundance Festival, is the third film confront the intensity ofthe violence each union, which is played out in a number by Billops and Hatch. Each oftheir films had sustained at the hands ofher husband ofsettings. In a meditative moment, focuses on the sort ofstory that middle­ and her father, respectively. The film thus Christa describes Billops as a cactus who class America commonly suppresses. situates the account ofdrug abuse within a doesn't want to be touched, while she Suzanne Su:zanne (1982) investigated the narrative offamily violence, prompting ees herselfas an octopus who can't history ofdrug abuse and domestic mother and daughter to recognize the ouch enough. And in another theatrical violence in the family ofBillops sister uneasy silence upon which their mutual interlude, in which mother and daughter Billie. Older Women andLove (1987), oppression had depended. share family photographs and accounts inspired by the relationship between Suzanne Su:zanne not only attempted to as ifthey are playing cards, dismantle the idealized viewers glimpse the rivalry notion ofthe perfect family. that exists between the two By both undercutting the women. Finding Christa authority ofdocumentary ends tentatively with evidence-family photo­ muted, dreamlike shots of graphs and home movies­ Billops and Hatch waving and revealing the artificiality sparklers and welcoming inherent in the process of Christa home. documentary filmmaking, it The visual style of also challenged viewers to Finding Christa comple­ question how they arrive at ments its themes and the truth. convictions. The intelWeav­ The account ofBillops' ing ofinterviews and relationship with Christa archival footage presents lurked on the periphery of one set offacts, but viewers Su:zanne Suzanne. Christa suspect that truths too deep appears, in that film, as an for direct testimony reside infant and toddler in photo­ in the hallucinatory inter­ graphs and clips from Bell ludes. Moreover, the and Howell home movies; striking contrast that the Billops and Christa sang the film subtly draws between title song together. In Christa's two mothers Finding Christa, the filmmak­ undercuts any monolithic ers bridge the gap between notion ofBlack mother­ the wistful image captured hood. Indeed, the very on screen and the haunting primacy ofbiological Vantile Whitfield in ascene from Finding Christa. voice heard at the beginning motherhood is challenged. and end ofSu:zanne Su:zanne. The interactions between Christa and Billops' octogenarian Aunt Phine and a By addressing the subject ofdomestic her two mothers remind us that the younger man, explored the erotic lives of violence, Su:zanne Su:zanne took on a topic mother-daughter relationship is at least older women. All three works challenge that has only recently become speakable in partly constructed and maintained the myths about women's sexuality and representations offamilies, especially of through continuous renegotiations. By ideologies offamily upon which middle­ Mrican American families. Finding Christa exploring the circumstances that sur­ class life in the United States seems so is even more daring, for, as Lekatsas has rounded Billops' choice, as well as the fully to depend. written, "a mother who gives up her child complex issues that emerged from the Finding Christa might be viewed as a is considered even lower on the scale of reunion, the film dismantles idealized companion film to Su:zanne Su:zanne. civilization than a brutal father." conceptions ofmotherhood that often Billops and Hatch intended their first deny the complexity ofBlack women's film to address Billops' niece Suzanne's Valerie Smith, associate professor ofEnglish at the lives. recovery from drug addiction. But University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, writes about race, Finding Christa, which shared the top during the course oftheir interviews, gender and culture. prize in the documentary category at this Billie and Suzanne were forced to

14 Black Film Review Inding Christa's production Director James Hatch.

Black Film Review 15 E.CULTURE CH U IHIS PART II By Kalamu ya Salaam

In the last issue tfBlack Film Review, Kalamu ya Salaam surveyedsome ofthe recent Black Hollywoodfilms in his essay c,'Black Macho: The Myth -ofthe Positive Imqge. "In that:article, the author detailed what he saw as the Jatalflaw" ofmany oflastyearsfilms: ,cthestereotyping anddenigration,ofBlack,wo.men andthe .projection ofeither capitalism or criminality t1S-accepta:ble, even laudatory, economic pursuits."Here, wepresentpart two ofSalaams assessment tfour roles as African American media producers-and consumers.

he real deal is issue and has little to do with culture lifetime job.)And quiet as it's kept, most that because and consciousness. For others, it.is ofthese new-Black movies are made by ofour male­ deeper than skin. Consider the ·same men who are looking fo,r an-opportunity sexual· insecurity and question, but instead offocusing on to get their rums shownin the big an often unstated, cinema, let's focus on music. Is our houses and-hoping also, one guesses, to nonetheless all­ music the same as mainstream music? win the prestigious awards. consuming, desire to The jazz,gospel, blues, funk, rap These movies eitherignore orcarnou­ expr~sourmanhood answers are obvious. The problem with :flagemoney.pressures, as:in Livin'Large, through domination most commercial Black movies is that where the "hero" keeps getting pro­ ofothers, most ofus men seldo'm, if they are hook~laden, top 40-oriented moted while battling villainousprofes­ ever, address theissue ofeither'our own hits that are contrived in the studios to sional white women and receiving personal sexualchauvin:ism or systemic make a buck. support and-partnership fromsympa­ sexism, nor are· we, prepared to ~be :self­ While some may perceive my criti­ thetic white males. Clarence Thomas critical about our indulgent efforts to .cism as exaggerated, even a cursory notwithstanding, .that is -hardly -a realistic produce profitable; status~quoacceptable review oflastyear's-crop ofBlack movies .presentation ofhow the system gen,erally "prot~t"art. will show a general acceptance ofthe works. ",Prot~t" artists' invariably want their economic system, often through"the How is it that new Black movies work to be judged ~esameas "all other glorification ofcriminality or the simple c()ntinue to avoid realistically dealing woik"-andthat is the problem. Are avoidance ofany economic critique with the main driving forces motivating Black'movies'really the same -as _main­ 'beyond "they:keep us·from getting the actions and reactions ofthe vast stream movies? Are we advocating the j·obs"-as ifthe goal was to get ajob majority ofMrican American mal~? same goals, are we usingthe same 'rather than.to secure economic self­ Responding to my critique ofa recent language? ,sufficiency. (A "job," after all, is all movie, my teen-aged son replied, "Well, For some,'B-Iackness is :simply a .racial 'Clarence Thomas wanted, albeit a .ifI wanted to see reality, I'd look out the

16, Black Film Review window. I go to the movies for enter­ tion. based on acceptance ofsexual chauvin­ tainment." His view contains a common New Black directors must also deal ism and reticence on economic issues. assumption that, somehow, entertain­ with the fact that they are not in the This becomes the matrix out ofwhich ment is value-free, or at least non­ starting lineup and instead are pinch we get the "Clarence Thomases" ofthe negative. As we talked further, we agreed hitters. Usually they make it to the plate movie industry-men who deny their more than we disagreed. One point of at best once a game, and when they do, complicity in a sexist system and refuse convergence was on the absolute they had better get a hit ifthey hope for to recognize any sexism in their own necessity ofbox office support for these another batting opportunity. All ofthese behavior, and who, at the same time, efforts. Hollywood will offer no oppor­ issues impact the creative decisions that a become apologists for-and sometimes tunity for serious, "critical" Black movies director must make. In many ways, the even advocates of-the dominant unless there is a market for Black movies pressures are unimaginable to the economic system. in general. But the solution to our average VIewer. It is a romantic dream, at best, to problem lies not simply in bolstering the There can be no doubt that the expect that individual directors, male or existent commercial system. tempering ofthe Hollywood production female, can withstand the pressures of What we really need is to expand and system, which includes the vicious this social system and, at the same time, strengthen the independent and alterna­ vicissitudes ofthe marketplace, func­ produce high-quality, relevant movies. It tive network that was sought and tions as a form ofcensorship, even ifno is a tragic commentary on our predica­ worked toward in the early '70s by more than to induce an internalized self­ ment that those who in practice most independent Black filmmakers and is censorship which manifests itselfby strongly espouse this idealistic illusion continued now by the work ofa handful directors second-guessing themselves are the same ones who are most vulner-· ofsisters and a smaller number of and meeting criteria that are completely able, those individual directors and brothers. foreign to their films' subject matter. cinema artists. The reality is that many, ifnot most, This is essentially the problem that The real solution to our problems young directors will choose to go the confounded Michael Schultz, who is a transcends aesthetic concerns and lies in Hollywood rather than the independent director with an admirable track record, the creation and maintenance of fum route. The Hollywood system will in his attempt to get Livin'Large alternative and supportive social systems. give one oftwo choices: either have the produced. In this case, we need to construct fums ghettoized as low-budget movies While I will not argue that only men alternative distribution networks and aimed exclusively at Black audiences, or feel these pressures, I will argue that, alternative film clubs, societies and create films which have been designed, given the overwhelming prevalence of festivals. In the long run, what we're some would say "bleached,"·to conform men as the movers and shakers ofthe really dealing with is not just a simple to the aesthetics ofthe general market. industry, there is a male thing going on. critique ofparticular films, but rather a Nevertheless, these constraints and In other words, the prevalence ofthe critique ofthe function offums within considerations should not be used as a white male point ofview, in one way or the society at large, a critique ofthe rationale for the wholesale submission to another, informs and colors the rela­ production offilms, and a critique of system stereotyping and adoption of tively few films which are made. ourselves as both the producers and the exploitative subject matter or modes of This set ofconflicts is the seldom seen consumers ofcultural productions. presentations. underbelly ofBlack commercial fums. In today's pop-culture marketplace, To make matters worse, there is no So while, on the one hand, I am very entertainment means more than amuse­ Black-owned or even Black-controlled critical ofmost ofthe new Black films, ment. The fantasy-producing industry infrastructure for distributing and on the other hand, I understand that ofHollywood is a reality that must be showing movies. Black directors face all these films represent at best a negotiated dealt with. And whether they want to be ofthis in their efforts to make fums. detente between directors and a movie or not, new Black male directors, who Thus, while we tend to see the movie industry which has its own mores and now represent the largest percentage of itselfas the sum total ofthe artistic methodologies, nearly all ofwhich are people ofcolor who get an opportunity effort, we as viewers seldom confront or diametrically opposed to the goals ofour to make films, are on the front line of take into consideration the plethora of directors-the one exception being the this struggle. Ifthey are to succeed, they problems Black moviemakers face­ insistence on macho. will need our critical support. from raising capital and making contacts This is where the collusion occurs.

to sell projects, to getting relevant Since raw racism is now outmoded, a Kaldmu ya Salaam is a writer and musicproducer in promotion and broad-based distribu- Black male can buy into the system New Orleam.

Black Film Review 17- By Clyde Taylor

riticism ofBlack cinema has advanced in A rush ofBlack-oriented movies from Hollywood typically creates the specter ofa crisis ofimagery. Great expectations quantity and quality in the last couple of are raised in the blizzard ofmedia attention. And soon the Black popula­ decades-promising in ~versity·to tion becomes fired up about the possibil­ ity that the Black screen image has .--'~. / become a focal point for the discu~sion lend form to a developing Black film culfure. But, ofthe issues and dilemmas facing Black society. This is exactly the response one would desire from a Black film culture, ironically; this slowly developing critical discourse faces were it not infested with commercialism, celebrity glitz and media hype. With a setback with the coming ofthe latest wave ofBlack these mendacious energies involved, / criticism sinks to its lowest levels. Large stakes generate paranoia, and pop-think movies from Hollywood. Ifcritical intelligence takes a . becomes dominant. Rumors spread. Conspiracies are suspected. nosedive these days, it will follow a pattern set with The pied piper ofthis retarded media mentality is the doctrine of"positive images." Where most ofthe directors of other Hollywood "booms" in Black cinema in the the most recent Black independent fdm movement-Haile Gerima, Julie Dash, early '70s and, before that, in the late '30s. Spike Lee and pre-House Party Warrington Hudlin--eonsistently tried to educate their audiences about the limitations ofpositive images, the n~est directors in Hollywood-John Single-

18 Black Film Review ton, out ofhis youth, perhaps, and since the outcry over Superfly. Reviews director or movie that meets their Mario Van Peebles, out ofhis cynical and essays bubble up and then sink back approval, but only to get ammunition -ambition, perhaps-have raised the cry into a massive pool offrustration, against those-they hate. New jack critics ofpositive image to burnish the reputa­ resentment, envy and impatience-the never spend time appreciating or tion oftheir films. quandary where disempowerment supporting what's right with movies Rising to the bait and to the lure of reproduces itself they like. They never phrase their media fascination, a breed of"new jack There's nothing positive about critiques in a way that would help the criticism" has appeared, spreading positive image critique in its new jack ftlmmaker learn something. That would confusion as ifwe had learned nothing phase. New jack critics may mention a betray the schoolyard mentality of "positive" critique: Say something appreciative, and you might get jumped for the shaki­ ness ofyour negative gaze. It reminds me of the crows' song in The ~z: You can't win; you can't get even; and you can't even get out ofthe game. The feverish atmos­ phere ofcrisis that nurtures new jack positivism is too itchy for clarifications, distinctions, consider­ ations ofcircumstance. Principles ofcriticism are dismissed as wimpy distractions. It is precondemned to binary oppositions useful only for totalitar­ ian extractions of confessions. It revels in the kind ofManichean, either/or, good/bad, black/white zero-sum thinking that resurgent Black intellectuals have targeted as one ofthe most serious liabilities of Occidental thought. You find this "born yesterday" refusal to see that films are .made from different predica­ tions: some to make money and garner fame, some to express an Scene from Boyz Nthe Hood. artist's sensibility, and

Black Film Review 19 Waymon Tinsdale III (Joseph C. Phillips, right), Natalie (Halle Berry) and Bobby Johnson (Tommy Davidson) in Strictly Business. some to speak to social issues in a with lots ofsex and violence is predi­ that you are not expected to ask which reflective way. You find this heavy cated on Hollywood codes rooted in an positive image, according to whose armature leveled at cliches in money­ ancient capitalist culture industry. ideology, and building on what social hustling movies coming from an Wearing this new-born innocence on its consensus ofwhat is right for everybody. industry defined by its successful sleeve, new jack criticism conjures up a Positive images are confused with the marketing ofcliches. rage as convincing as the oath of man in the mirror. One disingenuous pose competes directors like Mario Van Peebles to offer This clan ofcritics makes the same with another. To pretend not to under­ positive social critiques, a media rage as gesture toward the makers ofthe new stand that the cultural imaginary of compelling as the liberation philosophy movies as the white woman clutching almost every known society lies captive ofMichael Jackson's videos. her purse when a Black man enters the ofmasculinism-and that it takes an The snap-fingered judgment­ elevator. There is the same assumption astonishingly brilliant effort to power­ "Hated it!"-ofthe critics on the ofguilty intentions, drawn with fine, fully reconfigure those values, as do television show "In Living Color" are as imagined precision. Black fums that fit Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Julie reasonable as some ofthese critiques, the text ofthe oncoming sermon are Dash-rivals the innocence ofnot and more economical. The posture of lumped indiscriminately together and knowing that a gangster movie filled political correctness (PC) is so intense essentialized as a conspiracy.

20 Black Film Review Organizational consultant D.T. sucked back into this level ofcriticism Jack City. Gates' examples come from Saunders breaks it down clinically. by the need to rebuke the positivity Boyz N the Hood, Juice, Livin'Large, Members ofa group reluctant to take claims ofsome ofthe new directors. His Strictly Business and Ricochet. They both leadership watch a leader-like figure essay, "Black Macho: The Myth ofthe speak as though they are talking about emerge. They make a rigid separation Positive Message" (Black Film Review, "the new Black cinema." When they between the things they like and don't Vol. 7, No.1), proclaims, "The psycho­ talk about the same films, but see like about this person. Out offear that sexual bottom line ofmost films by diametrically different things, they seem these negative traits echo some oftheir Black male directors today is the desire to be seeing what they want--or, more own, they magnify and denounce them, to replace the white man with a Negro importantly, what they don't want-to in a ritual orgy ofexorcism. Instead of male who, while operating under the see. finding a composite gain in this guise ofbeing a liberator, actually Veteran activist Salaam is furious at personality's pluses and minuses, they internalizes the trappings and tempera­ Furious, Tre's dad in Boyz N the Hood. jump to categorical put-downs, debilitat­ ment ofoppressor." He is not a positive image. Why? ing what might have led to a progressive Gates, on the other hand, asks "Must Because he is "never shown working group effort. Saunders calls it an artjfact Buppiehood Cost Homeboy His Soul?" with, not to mention organizing, his ofdisempowerment. So the new jack (New York Times, March 1, 1992) and community." Boyz N the Hood is about! critics. insists that "[t]hese films argue that to be the notion that Black men have to take What better proofofthe contagion of upper middle class is to be alienated the responsibility for making men of new jack delirium than its temporary from the 'real' Black community ofthe their·sons. And Furious is drawn in very (let's hope) outbreak in Kalamu ya ghetto." direct, positive imagery as an example of Salaam and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., two Are these guys talking about the same that. Salaam is talking about a different experienced, very different cultural movies? Salaam focuses on Boyz N the movie and is measuring Furious against commentators. Salaam apparently gets Hood, Jungle Fever, Livin'Large and New a model he brought to the movie. So, he finds Furious sadly lacking. Gates finds an offensive portrait of buppiedom in a scene inJuice where Yolanda, the girlfriend ofQuincy, the -ALTERNATIVEVlDEOS.. protagonist, chooses him over a jacket­ SPECIALIZING IN BLACK VIDEDS-- and-tie dude. An assault on the Black middle class? Maybe the point of Quincy's hook-up with Yolanda, who is older than he and more socially mobile, is to suggest his reach for possibilities beyond his street partners' scams, a bit like the Manhattan dancing partner of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Both Salaam and Gates are dragging issues into these films out oftheir own I frustrations, asking them to measure up to nonexistent scripts that would @i I Ron Carter &-Art Farmer dramatize their own social ideals favor­ Live at Sweet Basil's Scintillating live jazz featuring 4 of the ably. They score perceptive points, and world's most respected musicians CHILDREN'S Cooley High $7995 r ------yR::F;-M_------even their heavy, unbalanced dictums ---.!:~ANKYOU~FO~RO~RDERING~ Spook Who I -- N are marshalled with intelligence and wit. VIDEOS 95 QUANT TITLE UNIT TOTAL ome Sat By The $39 I PRICE PRICE People Could Fly $2995 Door I ==--=--==-~~_~~~~ - ~----I But they lapse into criticism as personal 95 African Journey $79 Liberation Of $5995' City therapy. W BH $2995 L. B. Jones ,------ords yeo'rt $1995 ------r- Zip The pain and disorientation in the 95 ~~~:;r~~:~ ~J l,~21--~- Monkey People $12 $19 : #TAPES -.=- ..-... '..p_Oo, Black community hits the writing 95 95 lslt~.S1.00peroddtlO'1dt~ro

Black Film Review 21 frustration is passed offas principled tacked slavery. examining fictive, cultural works. pos trollS .. The critical response is to Salaam's critique ofthe sexism ofthe New jack critics lump serious and focus one's target more sharply. More new movies is adept, but overcommitted huckstering movies together, without often than not, that target is the to an either/or reading. There is a need regard for genre or predication. They troubled knot ofproblematic identity to examine Boyz N the Hood andJuice thrust all character and incidents called Black manhood. differently from formula movies like forward to a surface plane, flattening "My manhood?" asks 'Clay in Amiri NewJack City and Livin'Large. Boyz N them for easier PC scrutiny. Narrative Baraka's play Dutchman. "1 didn't know the Hood andJuice aim to speak with strategy is dismissed. Context disappears. we were talking about my manhood." some honesty to the abject mental Positive image critics don't give a And Lula, the white American know-it­ vacuum that leads young Black men to damn about images, only characters, the all replies, "What else do you think slaughter one another, arguably one of sociological look ofthem, and how they we've been talking about all this time?" the most difficult problems for any might make "us" look, mainly to Overselling his thesis that the new Black speakers or leaders, let alone "them." The meaning ofa film is movies locate authentic Black culture filmmakers. avoided as a hindrance. Theme, inten­ only in the ghetto, Gates tries to make A movie that breaks with too many tion, framing are frozen out, while the an example out ofBoyz N the Hood. existing movie codes will lose its audi­ new jack critics squint for texts to This should give him trouble, since ence. The parameters in which movies sermonize their personal resentments. Furious, the father, is button-down like Boyz N the Hood andJuice get made Blaming the messenger for the message middle class, insisting on instilling to reach young Black moviegoers with a is just a slight cut above holding actors middle-class values into his son, who is popular spectacle means making com­ responsible for the fecklessness ofthe so afraid ofbeing trapped in the ghetto promises that a critic ought to consider. characters they depict. that he is afraid to lose his virginity, who Boyz N the Hood does, as Salaam says, Rather than advance our understand­ has the avenue ofcollege education depreciate the roles ofwomen. But ing ofhow films work or how they drummed into him as the passage out of considering its intentions, that flaw need might contribute to a counterpolitic of the community-a remedial message not be "fatal." representation, new jack critics play to Salaam sensibly challenges. New jack critics can be more formu­ the lowest critical perceptions in the How does Gates overcome this laic than the movies they attack. Salaam gallery. They follow the primitive obstacle? By reaching for the PC argues thatJungle Fever makes white assumption that isolated images are feminist argument that the film attacks men "paragons ofmanhood" because injected directly into the mainstream of "upper middle class women" in the Paulie, a minor character, is portrayed the viewer's consciousness, with no portrayal ofTre's mother, Reva. The with some decency and sensitivity, while meditations from story, multiple and parental expertise ofall Black women, Flipper, the central character in the contrary significances-in short, according to Gates, is threatened when story, does not master his moral issues. imagination. she turns T re over to his father because By this measure, John Singleton simi­ New jack critics crawl out ofthe she"can't teach him what he needs to larly sinned in Boyz N the Hood by woodwork as soon as a Black director know." Whatever the merits ofthe showing a Black cop acting more begins to achieve notoriety and fame. heated issues here, Singleton's pitch for brutally than his white partner. The Already, we can see this crabs-in-the­ male-male parenting is not as debatable implied critical straightjacket would rob barrel criticism mounting against Julie as the counterargument that women can directors ofany chance to risk complex­ Dash and her success with Daughters of always do it better. ity, any right to probe the shaded, the Dust. A friend ofmine, a '60s radical, Gates' defense ofbuppiedom against human dilemmas ofBlack behavior, and said on the phone about that film, "1 ridicule in Livin'Large and Strictly would rob Boyz N the Hood, Juice and was disappointed. 1so wanted it to be Business ignores the populist Hollywood Jungle Fever ofthe weighty questions perfect." The fault, new jackers, lies not convention ofsatirizing the stuffed they raise by going beyond positive in your stars but in yourselves. shirts, who end up patting their feet at tmagery. the close ofthe movie. Nor does he When a healthy Black fum culture is Clyde Taylor is aprofessor ofliterature andfilm concede the tradition in Black expres­ achieved, let us hope it will raise politics studies at Tufts University and the author of sion, evidenced in Boyz N the Hood and and the politics ofrepresentation as numerous articles on Blackfilm. Juice, ofdirecting attention to the most crucial issues. But the bankruptcy of oppressed sectors ofthe community, as positive-image criticism is its willful Frederick Douglass did when he at- blindness to the most basic practices in

22 Black Film Review DISPLACED DESIRES male body. When we see Chris in Young In the scene in which Billibud and Caz continuedfrom page 11 Soul Rebels, we see a character who is first meet in the park, the camera follows vulnerable on a number oflevels. Caz and, because ofthe darkness ofthe these conflicting desires for identifica­ Simply, on the level ofthe plot, Chris is setting and the eerie rustle offootsteps in tion-with Black men, with Blackness, vulnerable to his lover Tracy. He needs the grass, replicates much ofthe sus­ in general-at the center of Young Soul her to satisfy his emotional and sexual pense ofthe murder scene. We soon see, Rebels. The white character Ken's envy needs as well as to help him make however, that it is only Caz's would-be ofBlack masculinity manifests itselfin inroads into the mainstream radio lover Billibud following him. They the killing act. Ifthe murder does not industry. At the level ofthe image, Chris enter, ifwe believe the cruising formula, make this explicit, the scene in which is also vulnerable. He is framed through­ in order to have sex. Yet, Caz decides Ken fIXates on the mechanic Carlton's out the fdm as the desired body-we see they cannot fool around because, he says body, as he takes a shower, certainly him get dressed repeatedly. Chris repeatedly, "it feels a bit weird." Next, in does. represents an image ofBlack masculinity what stands as perhaps the most erotic White envy, desire, and murder are that is in many ways disconsonant with scene in the film, Billibud bares his chest privileged in tllis film, yet they are also conventional representations ofthe so that Caz can write his phone number constrained by this very positioning. Black straight male body as hard and on it. So, they enter the park with a Like the critic Kobena Mercer's discus- aggresSIve. certain set ofintentions, but their To explore the ultimate objective is to get beyond the issue ofambivalence park. and the white male This gesture mirrors the film's efforts body, let us return to to move toward another space ofdesire the question of and identity expressed through music. cruising and danger. Julien's placement ofthe film's utopian In Lookingfor moment at the end of Young Soul Rebels, Langston, the park! a moment ofsoul and dance, makes .. . cruISIng scene IS explicit this suggestion ofa space and fdmed in medium moment ofpleasure uncontainable by close-up, with the conventional codes. Importantly, leather-clad bodies these moments in Julien's films represent tightly cropped and both a naive pleasure and significant framed in ways very interventions in the discussion ofrace, similar to sexuality and identity. In Territories, the Mapplethorpe's final dance that the Black gay couple photographs. Also, in performs on the Union Jack is used to the voice-over, Essex "open" what the flag has traditionally Hemphill recites symbolized. In Lookingfor Langston, the poetic lines in which final dance, as an expression ofsexuality, he expresses the is used to open a particular matrix of danger ofphysical American cultural politics-race and Mo Sesay and Jason Durr in ascene from Young Soul Rebels. harm (i.e., bashing) power in gay male desire. In Young Soul and AIDS that dwell Rebels, the final dance suggests not only sion ofMappiethorpe's work, Julien's beneath the surface ofthe scene itself the end point ofa complex contempla­ siting ofthe question ofambivalence Unlike other moments in Lookingfor tion ofthe question ofdesire and race, around the Black male body remains Langston, which frame "looking" as a but also the opening up ofthe possibility constrained by the density and pleasurable activity, the mise-en-scene ofan identity politics beyond the tunnel weightedness ofa certain set ofsignifiers here suggests that cruising in the space vision ofrace and sexuality-specific ofrace, interracial and intraracial desire, ofthe park holds incredible, insur­ nationalisms. and sexuality. mountable danger. Consider the tension between what In Young Soul Rebels, Julien reframes Stephen Best writes about masculinity and the Chris's body signifies and what it should cruising by accepting it as a site for African American canon. "properly" signify as a Black straight controlled, yet ambivalent, pleasuring.

Black Film Review 23 Bishop (Tupac Shakur, right) confronts Q(Omar Epps) in Juice.

By Jacquie Jones

24 Black Film Review uring adolescence, many ofus engaged in various forms ofpetty thievery; usually on dares and bets. We didn't need the goods we stole, but we needed the respect ofour peers, a validation in our tiny spheres ofour own personal power. But, back then, we didn't have guns, and the idea ofkilling was as foreign as, well, Black independent film. ~ But, as cinematographer and now first-time feature film director Ernest Dickerson is quick to point out, times have changed. "I didn't have to worry about going to school and, perhaps, being shot on the subway because somebody wanted my coat or somebody wanted my sneakers," he says ofhis own youth. And while Dickerson says that he can't imagine the pressures facing kids today; he does an astonishing job ofrendering those pressures inJuice, .released by Paramount Pictures earlier this year. ~ While the landscape and texture ofJuice are not remarkable, it enters a world afboys becoming ~en in a way quite distinct from other recent films; it enters through the mind. Here, parents and racists achieve no prominence, good or bad. Instead, the focus never wavers from the conflict ofgroup over individual, leader over follower, objective over circumstance. Poised at a shattering moment, when a flight ofteenage insurgence goes unalterably wrong, Juice asks the questions: who will survive, and why? ~ In Juice, the sweep ofpeer pressure has immediately recognizable, tragic implications. Tupac Shakur gives a stunning performance as Bishop, the high-strung bully ofthe bunch, who pushes the antics ofthe teenagers into the downward rush ofcriminalit)T. Omar Epps as Q who tries to salvage the wreckage, is a compellingly uncer­ tain foil to Bishop's self-possessed mania. Together, the characters explode the veneers ofcamaraderie and macho, often taken for granted in cinematic rendering ofyoung Black men. And though the film has been criticized as needlessly violent and nonredemptive, it offers a moving ponrait ofone boy's attempt to purge his community: ~ Dickerson conceived and co-wrote (with Gerrard Brown) Juice as his feature film debut. With it, he proves that his talents lie far beyond the rich canvases he has created as a cinematographer in his association with Spike Lee; he has been director ofphotography for all ofLee's features, including the upcoming Malcolm X Before Juice, Dickerson tested his hand by directing "Spike & Co.: Do It A Capella" for PBS' "Great Performances." His other credits as a cinematographer include John Sayles' Brother From Another Planet; RobenTownsend's Eddie Murphy "Raul', Michael Schultz's Krush Groove; and Antillean director Felix De Rooy's Desiree, Almacita Di Desolato and Ava & Gabriel In addition to feature films, Dickerson has photographed a number ofmusic videos and commercials. ~ A native ofNewark, NewJersey; and a graduate ofHoward University School ofArchitecture and NewYork University (NYU) Graduate School ofFihn, Dickerson is the youngest member ofthe American Society ofCinematographers. While in Washington to promoteJuice, he spoke to me for Black Film Review.

Black Film Review: What were your what it was like when we were growing own world without any real interference intentions with Juice? What were you up. It wasn't as dangerous as it seemed from parents or older people because it is trying to capture? like it was becoming for a lot ofkids that about the dynamics within a peer group. Ernest Dickerson: It really came out of we knew. And I wanted to do a film I really wanted to deal with the kids and wanting to tell a story about growing up about that. My partner [Brown] and I how they dealt with each other. today; it grew out ofseeing what was wrote the script eight years ago, but I going on in our neighborhoods. Gerrard BFR: What I thought was interesting and think, in the eight years since we wrote different about Juice is that it deals so [Brown] was living in Harlem; I was it, it's actually become more timely. specifically with a psychology that is the living in Queens. We looked back at I specifically set it within the boys'

Black Film Review 25 esu of e ings that are happening in to sell Q drugs, and he basically says, through nowadays, and I can't even .ety wi out actually indicting anything "Nah, I'm not about that," and moves imagine the pressures that they have to o one. Was that intentional? on. But we cut it out, not because we deal with. I didn't have to worry about Dickerson: Yes. I wanted to get as didn't want to make references to it but going to school and perhaps being shot specific as I could. You could say that a to keep the rhythm ofthe film. on the subway because somebody lot ofkids do this because ofpoverty or wanted my coat or somebody wanted BFR: I thought also that Juice was lacking racism (that gives rise to poverty). But my sneakers. then, too, this story also happens among in the kind of misogyny that goes on in so many other films. The women in the film kids who aren't poor. You have a lot of BFR: What was your directo ·al eb t ike? exist in so many degrees. I found that Dickerson: It was good. I en· 0 ed it. The only problem I had as ith the weather. We just wound p hooting when there was a lot ofrain and there are a lot ofexteriors in our sually, whenever you are planning a hed- ule, you do your exteriors fir then you have cover sets, which are . oor sets that you can go into and hoo· ill case it rains. And we used up a a cover sets quickly. Several tim weatherman said there was no c rain, and it wound up pounng. one night we found out it was rairuna ~o in Harlem. When that happe J can't help but take it a little per 0

IFR: What was the budget? Dickerson: We shot the film for lion.

BFR: How was it financed? Dickerson: It was financed b World pictures in England. The:~ . the script. Then, when the film Director Ernest Dickerson (right) discusses ascene with Omar Epps. three quarters complete, we too different companies to get dis . Paramount picked it up. kids who come from well-to-do families refreshing. who involve themselves in crime. And Dickerson: I intended for Yolanda BFR: So, you say you wro e eigh then there are a lot ofkids who are poor, [Cindy Herron] to really be Qs friend. years ago. What happened • · en ? who are victims ofracism, who don't There was a little bit more development Dickerson: My career as a c ematogra­ take that path. ofYolanda that was cut from the movie pher took offand I concentrated on I wanted to deal with peer pressure; I that I feel a little bit sorry about. Actu­ that. But, also, after the t draft ofthe script, I was really worried that a lot of think a lot oftimes this is a force that ally Yolanda was sort ofwritten as my causes kids to make the choices that they point ofview. Because Yolanda consid­ the young kids would end up identify­ do in their lives-regardless oftheir ers herselfsomebody who was a bit ofa ing more with Bishop. I wanted kids to economic background, or even racial revolutionary when she was coming identify with Q Because ofthat, I kind background. Peer pressure is a real up--and she did some kind ofwild stuff ofput the script away. But then I moving force in kids' lives. when she was coming up--but she has a realized that what I needed to do was give Q more edges. I didn't want Q to IFR: Are you concerned about any hard time seeing what Q has to go be a goody-two-shoes kid. He's a good criticism about the absence of drugs? through on a day-by-day basis. And that kid with edges. And I think we got Dickerson: No. We actually had a small was the way I felt. I grew up as a revolu­ stronger in doing that. scene in Trip's store where some kids try tionary, but I see what the kids are going

26 Black Film Review BFR: Did you chose to make this film at because Spike is a Morehouse [College] led to Shes Gotta Have It. Joes Bed-Stuy the same time the other new Black films graduate and I'm a Howard graduate. I helped get me my first feature film as a were coming out? used to like to tease Spike about how cinematographer, Brotherfrom Another Dickerson: No, it just seemed to many times we kicked Morehouse's ass Planet. happen. Actually, I didn't know about at homecoming. But, after that, we We've grown together, and we've the other films. The only film I knew started doing what everybody in film reached a point where we don't even about was NewJack City because a lot of school does, we started talking about speak that much about what we're friends ofmine had worked on it. Boyz films. And we found out that we had a doing. We have a telepathy. N the Hood and Straight Out ofBrooklyn lot ofsimilar agendas in film, a lot of were not out yet. We heard rumors BFR: I've heard that Malcolm Xwill be your stories that we wanted to tell. One ofthe last film togelher.ls that true? about them, but we didn't know what dreams that we always talked about Dickerson: I don't know. I can't say. I they were about. NewJack City actually we're in the process ofrealizing now­ hope that I will still be able to work as a premiered while we were in prepro­ we both wanted to do the Autobiography cinematographer, but I like directing. I duction. ofMakolmX think it's going to be interesting to see BFR: You're primarily known as a cine We weren't able to work together the how I'm going to be able to bounce tographer, especially in conju ct+on +th first year offilm school because we were back and forth between the two. Spike Lee. Can you talk a little it a in separate sections. I was able to how that relationship develope • photograph his film Sara, his second­ BFR: How's Malcolm X been going? Dickerson: We first met in film school. year student film, and I've photographed Dickerson: It's been going a little bit We started out joking .th each other all ofhis films since then. Joe s Bed-Stuy tough. It's a long one. It's a big one. I

Q(Omar Epps) and Yolanda (Cindy Herron) share atender moment in Juice.

Black Film Review 27 heard there was a big thing in the papers how he wants to tell the story. Also, 8FR: Do you have a philosophy, a way of calling it a $40 million film. It's not a trying to keep fresh. looking at film, Black film? 40 million film. The budget that we Dickerson: Black film, all film-I think 8FR: What's your favorite film to date? asked for we were not given by Warner filmmakers have to remember that we're Dickerson: As a cinematographer, I like Brothers. ~ want people to know that we storytellers first and that we should tell Mo'Better Blues. And I like Do the Right good stories and try to tell them to as shot a three-hour movie. Warner Thing. Brothers might not release it as a three­ many people as poss ble. We should try hour movie, which I think will hurt the 8FR: You've also photographed commer­ to tell the truth, even ifthe truth is hard film. cials. for other people to look at and see. You We were serious about really trying to Dickerson: Yeah, I've done the Nike have to tell people what s really going on do Malcolm's life. To really tell the spots and the Levis spots [that Spike Lee outthere. We should ne er ell lies. has directed]. Commercials are great. man's life, you need a three-hour movie. 8FR: Do you see film as be· 9 politically You have to tell a little story, get that The ftIm that we shot deals with useful? message across in 30 seconds-and Malcolm's parents and how what Dickerson: Very. A lot ofpeop e think sometimes you get the chance to travel happens to his father-the murder ofhis ofa political, useful fJ.m as being a film father by a white supremacist group-­ to nice places. We did a Levis spot in that doesn't necessarily have to be a affects his later life. We see his rise. We Pampalona, Spain. That was fun commercially successful one. I think the because we were there at the running of see how he goes from being a gangster to two can go together. Unfortunate y, as the bulls. That was something I'd always jail, his rise within the nation ofIslam, fummakers, ifwe are going to survive as and then his ultimate pilgrimage to heard about. popular filmmakers in the film establish­ Mecca and how that spiritually changed 8FR: How did you make the choice in film ment culture in America, which is the him. That's a lot ofstuffto cover in a school to go into cinematography instead way we have right now to reach the movie. Ifit's released as a two-hour film, of directing? widest possible audience, we have to it's not Spike's fault. And, unfortunately, Dickerson: Cinematography was my worry about the commerciality ofour a lot ofpeople are waiting to see Spike first love. I learned photography at films. That is the way ofgetting people fuck this up. Howard, working for The Hilltop [the to see your movies. I think it will tax our student newspaper]. Plus, I was always 8FR: I know that you've also worked with creativity. I hope when we gain a real fascinated by the looks ofcertain films. the Antillean filmmaker Felix De Rooy. foothold in the industry, in another few Where did that relationship grow out of? And I always wondered how they got to years, then we can do projects that are Dickerson: Out ofNYU. Felix came to look that way. Later on I found out it more personal and not have to worry NYU in our second year. It really started was lighting and composition. And that about doing films that are commercial. when I photographed his thesis film, was my love. That's what drew me into A lot ofwhite filmmakers can do a Desiree. Felix is really a dealer. He did filmmaking. commercial film one time to trade offto Desiree as a student film fully intending On the way, studying works by do a more personal film, which may not to take it to Europe and release it as a cinematographers, I also had to see be as commercial, another time. works by directors who moved me. I theatrical film, which he did. And after 8FR: How do you do you feel about the started seeing the role ofthe director. Desiree that helped him to get money to climate in Hollywood right now? Still, at NYU, I wasn't certain ifI do Almacita, and, after that, he did Ava Dickerson: I'm hopeful that we'll see a wanted to direct. I think what was & GabrieL lot more Black films, a lot more fums by nagging was that there were some stories Black filmmakers. I hope we see a 8FR: What do you find most challenging as I wanted to tell. Juice was a story I really variety, different types ofsubject matter. a cinematographer? wanted to tell. Dickerson: Trying to tell a story visually, You're going to have fums that make it, using di~rent means to do that. I like 8FR: As a director, what are you looking and you're going to have films that to use color; I like to use it expressively. I forward to doing next? aren't going to make it. I think, right really try to work as much as I can with Dickerson: I'm writing a script now. now, we're the flavor ofthe year. Ifwe the production designer and the cos­ Something that nobody's dealt with yet, show that our fums can make money, tume designer in determining the color the Black experience in the future. we'll just be an established, everyday scheme ofthe film, scheme or schemes. What's going to be happening in our thing. Then, every time a good Black But really trying to get inside the cities 30 years from now. I hope that will fum comes out, it's not a big deal. It's director's head and figure out visually be my next film. just another good movie coming out.

28 Black Film Review YOUNG SOUL REBELS sexual fetish." He also talks, in his that he has flogged extensively as a continuedfrom page 11 conversation with hooks, about the theorist-notably that of filmic authorship cultural ambiguities and conflicts that and the way in which atext bears the This handsome book, replete with slick surface sharply when you address, as he traces of its creation. His musings on the photography, is an important document of does in his films, passion and desire. workings of theory in practice can be quite both the filmmaking process and a In MacCabe, Julien has plainly met amusing to those, like Julien, who read moment in British and Ba diaspora somebody who is ready to seize upon and theory. cultural history. After s introductions, make the most of his insights. MacCabe, The book thus has several fascinating production diaries ke 0 men are who is white, would have espoused facets and, through the introduction of the presented in chronol er (different Julien's cause for all the politically correct director and the producer as characters in typefaces-the a ien- reasons anyway-he says his producing the drama of filmmaking, acertain energy. distinguish them). S Gcessful goal was "to bear witness to Iives whose debut of the film i aconversa- It is blessed with the unpretentiousness stories had not yet been thought worthy of that may come from awriting process tion between Julie al ays inclusion within more general history," largely conducted with atape recorder. insightful bell ho Iished. Finally and more specifically to "develop ways of Not the least of its pleasures is Julien's comes the full S 1 'th photos recording the new generations born to succinct description of what he hopes to from the produ . s~ Commonwealth immigrants." But in accomplish with his filmmaking: "to keep Julien he discovers somebody people thinking through looking." who is an unpredictable, illumi­ nating and deeply admirable PatAufderheide is an assistant professor in the School guide on the way to his objective. ofCommunication at The American University and He also finds that the production a senior editor of In These Times newspaper. process creatively raises issues

Thro esubtlety and flexibility of Julien s erceptlons are impressive. At the start he talks about turning to cinema to bridge gaps that neither politics nor Published continually since 1967, Cineaste is today in­ culture spanned-between the club scene ternationally recognized as America's leading magazine and the moralistic leftists, between Blacks on the art and politics of the cinema. "A trenchant, eter­ nally zestful magazine," says the International Film Guide, and gays between cultures that now are "in the forefront of American film periodicals. Cineaste sporting what he calls "hybridity." His always has something worth reading, and it permits its writers more space to develop ideas than most maga­ sensitivity and wit are always evident. zines." When he has to go to 10 Downing Street Published quarterly, Cineaste covers the entire world of cinema - including Hollywood, the independents, to meet with Prime Minister Margaret Europe, and the Third World - with exclusive interviews, Thatcher on film production policy, he lively articles, and in-depth reviews. Subscribe now, or becomes fascinated with her ability to play send $2 for a sample copy, and see what you've been missing! controlling mother to the assembled officials. This is someone for whom the Here's $15 ($24 foreign) for 4 issues D complexities of race and gender are Here's $28 ($40 foreign) for 8 issues D important data, not reducible to schema. NAME _ At one point in the diary, he finds a ADDRESS ------common thread in his work: "I am CITY STATE------ZIP--- interested in the way that white males project their (repressed) sexuality onto Cineaste P.o. Box 2242 Blacks, constructing them in fantasy as a New York, NY 10009

Black Film Review 29 B CCUUOUGH . ued.from page 6 television? McCullough: Very difficult. I never Advert·se In I wasn't exactly a leisurely stroll really had a desire to work in the fi a fragrant garden. industry, but I needed a job. These cCullough: A lot ofit was hell. And in people actually contacted me and asked some ways it was embittering because ifI would be interested in working for BlackFllm au spent all that time and accumulated their special effects company. mu l!a ~ all those loans with very little idea of 8FR: So your story and Julie Dash's story how you would support yourselfwhen and others have ultimately had happy The Publication you finished. And, to make it worse, endings? That's Read B The there were no tangible role models in McCullough: All ofthe women who your field whose career paths you could were making films then have struggled People You eed To track. We were a first wave ofBlack over the years to continue making them. Reach female fIlmmakers. Some have suspended their calling, but 8FR: The payoff after 20 years of struggle? all have come back to it. And, though McCullough: I am a production we have been seriously hampered by the Call Advertising manager for one ofthe most important lack ofmoney and the access to tools, we Director production houses in Hollywood­ have never lacked the vision or the drive Sheila Reid at we've done all the recent Michael to tell our stories and reveal a little bit of 202/466-2753 Jackson stuff-and I produce my own who we are. fums via grants. Elizabeth Jackson, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the 8FR: Is it hard to reconcile your creative Department ofEnglish and Communications at side with the business side of film and California State University, Bakersfield.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Black Film Center/Archive Indiana University

Invites you to attend:

"In Touch With the Spirit: Black Religious and Musical Expression in American Cinema" July 9 - 12, 1992 Indianapolis, Indiana

"In Touch with the Spirit" combines both scholars and filmmakers in a multi-disciplinary settil1g. Filmmakers will screen and .discuss their films while scholars examine three major genres--documentary, ethnographic and feature film--from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

Donald Bogle will deliver the opening address, followed by a film premiere on July 9th. Conference sessions begin July 10th, featuring such speakers as Mario Van Peebles, Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, Michelle Parkerson, St. Clair Bourne, George Nierenberg, Bettye Collier-Thomas, Charles Long, Gerald. Davis, William Wiggins. For more information contact: Phyllis Klotman, Black Film Center/Archive Conference '92, M25 Memorial Hall East, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 (812) 855-6041.

30 Black Film Review CALENDAR

MAY MAYS-15 MAY 15 "Women Make Movies at 20," a The Cinema Studies Program ofthe MAY 7-16 touring program ofnew international College ofStaten Island/CUNY is The Los Angeles Asian Pacific features, documentaries and award­ holding a one-day conference on American International Film & Video winning shorts celebrating the 20th Hollywood, Race, and Ethnicity on Festival, the seventh annual showcase of anniversary ofthe largest distributor of Friday, May 15. Seating is limited. works byAsian Pacific Americans and women's film and video, will open in Participants include Marlon Riggs, Asian international filmmakers, will be New York on May 8 and run through Jacquie Jones, Ella Shohat and held May 7-16 at several venues in the May 15. A benefit screening ofPratibha Wahneema Lubiano. Los Angeles area. Pramar's A Place ofRage, which cel­ For More Information Contact: For More Information Contact: ebrates the lives ofMrican American Cinema Studies Program Visual Communications women and features June Jordan, who The College ofStaten Island! 263 South Los Angeles Street will be present that evening, Angela CUNY Suite 307 Davis and Alice Walker, will launch the 120 Stuyvesant Place Los Angeles, CA 90012 event. Other 1992 venues include Staten Island, NY 10301 (213) 680-4462 or Chicago Filmmakers, Seattle's Neptune (718) 442-2941 (213) 206-8013 Theater, the Sheldon Film Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Houston MAY 20-24 MAYS Museum ofFine Arts. The National Educational Film and The Film Arts Foundation Grants For More Information Contact: Video Festival will be held May 20-24 in Program, which supports the creation of Women Make Movies Oakland, California. Coinciding with new film and video art works that have 225 Lafayette, Suite 207 the festival is the National Educational little chance for traditional funding, will New York, NY 10012 Media Market. Videomakers, distribu­ award 20 grants to independent film (212) 925-0606 tors, media.purchasers and media and videomakers residing in the 10­ enthusiasts from allover the nation in county San Francisco Bay Area. To THROUGH MAY 10 the field ofnon-theatrical film and video receive guidelines and an application "Re-Mapping Culture(s): Film and will gather to view important new form, send a self-addressed, stamped the Media Arts" will be presented from works, attend seminars and make envelope. Deadline for submissions is April 15 through May 10 at the business contacts. May 8. Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art in For More Information Contact: For More Information Contact: New York City. This film and video National Educational Film and Film Arts Foundation program examines innovative strategies Video Festival 346 Ninth Street, Second Floor in film and the media arts to explore 655 Thirteenth Street San Francisco, CA 94103 international and intercultural issues. Oakland, CA 94612-1220 (415) 552-8760 Participating artists include Charles (510) 465-6885 Burnett, Zeinabu irene Davis, Marlon Riggs, Marco Williams and Billy Woodberry. For More Information Contact: Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art 945 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10021 (212) 570-3633

Black Film Review 31 MAY 30 JUNE 12-20 The African American Studies Center The 3rd Caribbean Film Festival will AUGUST ofthe Smithsonian Institution will be held June 12-20 in Fort de France, AUGUST 8-14 present a double feature on Saturday, Martinique. This cinematic and cultural The 38th Annual Robert Flaherty a 30. The award-winning Gaston event gives a unique opportunity to see Seminar will be held August 8-14 at Wells College, Aurora, New York. The Kabore's WendKuuni ("God's Gift"), the latest productions ofthe Caribbean Seminar is devoted to the exploration of the story ofa mute boy adopted by a Basin and its diaspora in the film and _family in Burkina Faso, illustrates how television production industry. all forms ofindependent cinema and traditional Mrican values can heal the For More Information Contact: video and is open to all with an interest in the field. This year's theme, "From ills ofmodern society. A Rainforest Images Caraibes These Shores," will explore the rich and Grows in Manhattan documents the 77 route de la Folie efforts ofa group ofyoungsters who take 97200 Fort de France varied expressions ofindependent part in an experiment to create a tropical Martinique (F.W.I.) filmmakers who employ diverse strate­ forest in the middle ofa city. (596) 51 32 33 or (596) 60 21 42 gies and create films and videos which defy easy categorization. The deadline For More Information Contact: Fax: (596) 51 06 65 for applying for financial assistance is Mrican American Studies Center May 15. Smithsonian Institution JULY For More Information Contact: Washington, DC 20560 JULY 22-25 Sally Berger, Executive Director (202) 786-2345 PHIlAFILM, the Philadelphia International Film Seminars International Film Festival, will 305 West 21st Street JUNE present its 15th annual fum festival New York, NY 10011 JUNE 1 and marketplace from Wednesday, (212) 727-7262 The Chicago International Festival of July 22 through Saturday, July 25. Fax: (212) 691-9565 Children's Films, to be held October 9­ Screenings ofindependent fum and 18, is accepting entries for its ninth video productions will be held daily at AUGUST 30 juried competition. Works must be the Federal Reserve BankAuditorium. The 2nd Annual Mrican American "humanistic, non-exploitative, non­ The Festival has planned a vigorous Great Works Film Festival is now violent and speak to culturally diverse marketing campaign to bring investors accepting films and videos from inde­ audiences." Deadline for entries to the table with producers and pendent Mrican American fummakers is June 1. directors. or fums which illustrate aspects ofthe For More Information Contact: For More Information Contact: Mrican American experience. The film Chicago International Festival of PHIlAFILM festival will be held in Richmond, Children's Films 121 North Broad Street VIrginia, September 25-27, 1992. The Facets Multimedia, Inc. Suite 618 deadline for submissions is August 30. 1517 West Fullerton Avenue For More Information Contact: Philadelphia, PA 19107 Chicago, IL 60614 Jerome Legions, Jr. (215) 977-2831 (312) 281-9075 Omega Media Network Fax: (215) 977-2856 Fax: (312) 929-5437 P.O. Box 4824 Richmond, VA 23220 (804) 353-4524

32 Blac.k Film Review

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Begin...or Continue Your Family Tradition atUDC

A 50-year family tradition lived on in the Allen Family when Kimberly Graves received a psychology degree, magna cum laude, last year at the University of the District of Columbia. Her mother, Desiree Graves, earned a quality education at UDC when it was called D.C. Teachers College. Kimberly's grandmother, Edith M. Allen, was in the Class of 1940 at Miner Teachers .. College, another UDC predecessor. UDC roots go back to 1851 with its founding as Myrtilla Miner "school for colored girls". Teaching was the respectable option for coeds in Mrs. Allen's generation. Career choices for women were hardly greater for Kimberly's mother. Both made their mark as educators. When Kimberly came along, the local tradition of excel­ lence in public higher education flourished at UDC. She found that UDC offers a comprehensive array of more than 120 academic programs, a strong faculty, conve­ nient campus locations, a highly motivated student For additional information body, and enormous value for every dollar invested. Call UDC-2225, or write: For Kimberly, whose generation of women recognizes few limitations on professional dreams, UDC was the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, or smart choice, just as it was for her mother and her Office of Graduate Admissions grandmother. Every year at UDC, husbands and wives, University of the District of Columbia mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, grand­ 4200 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. mothers and grandchildren graduate in the same class. Washington, D.C. 20008 Like the Allen women, they've established a family tradition at UDC. J~1- It's your turn now! Start a family tradition at UDC. Or a~ the smart choice keep one going. UDC is still the smart choice!! EEO-AA