University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston American Studies Faculty Publication Series American Studies Spring 2012 Civil Rights, Labor, and Sexual Politics on Screen in Nothing But a Man (1964) Judith E. Smith University of Massachusetts Boston,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/amst_faculty_pubs Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Film Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Judith E., "Civil Rights, Labor, and Sexual Politics on Screen in Nothing But a Man (1964)" (2012). American Studies Faculty Publication Series. Paper 3. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/amst_faculty_pubs/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the American Studies at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 1 Civil Rights, Labor, and Sexual Politics on Screen in Nothing But a Man (1964) Judith E. Smith Abstract The independently made 1964 film Nothing But a Man is one of a handful of films whose production coincided with the civil rights insurgency and benefited from input from activists. Commonly listed in 1970s surveys of black film, the film lacks sustained critical attention in film studies or in-depth historical analysis given its significance as a landmark text of the 1960s. Documentary-like, but not a documentary, it offers a complex representation of black life, but it was scripted, directed, and filmed by two white men, Michael Roemer and Robert Young.