Be a Man If You Can: Examining Pre-Migration and Post-Watts Revolt Identities of Black Working- Class Men in the Films of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990 Donte L
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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2013 Be a Man If You Can: Examining Pre-Migration and Post-Watts Revolt Identities of Black Working- Class Men in the Films of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990 Donte L. McFadden University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation McFadden, Donte L., "Be a Man If You Can: Examining Pre-Migration and Post-Watts Revolt Identities of Black Working-Class Men in the Films of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 333. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/333 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BE A MAN IF YOU CAN: Examining Pre-Migration and Post-Watts Revolt Identities of Black Working-Class Men in the Films of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990. by Donte McFadden A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee August 2013 ABSTRACT Be a Man If You Can: Examining Traditional and Contemporary Identities of Black Working-Class Men in the Films of Charles Burnett, 1969-1990. by Donte McFadden The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2013 Under the Supervision of Vicki Callahan, PhD The films of Charles Burnett from 1969 through 1990 focus on the presentation of black working-class men in South Los Angeles as the decline of industrial jobs alters the socioeconomic landscape. Two periods that are important to understand the historical reference of Burnett’s films are the Second Great Migration, in which African Americans evacuate the oppressive climate of Jim Crow to live in Los Angeles during World War II, and the Watts Revolt, a week in August in which residents of the Watts region revolted against law enforcement and business owners in response to the treatment of two African American motorists by California Highway Patrolmen. Burnett’s films contain influences from Third Cinema and Modernist European Cinema, as shown in the use of handheld cameras on location shoots with non-professional actors. Burnett’s earlier films rely on an episodic narrative structure to follow how his black male protagonists either transform their lives to adjust to the now-limited work opportunities, or stagnate themselves because the new climate has made them apathetic towards any hope for progress. His later films incorporate spatial narration, a storytelling strategy that relies on the formula of the classical Hollywood narrative. Rather than use this narrative structure ii commonly found in mainstream American cinema to establish a conflict, climax, and resolution within the story, Burnett is more focused on the relationship between space and time, demonstrated in the onscreen presence of older and younger characters and issues that pertain to both historical (i.e. migration era) and contemporary (i.e. post-Watts Revolt) identity. Ultimately, this project identifies components in Burnett’s filmmaking style and storytelling approach that allow him to present the lives of black working-class men of South Los Angeles and how they are effective. iii © Copyright by Donte L. McFadden, 2013 All Rights Reserved iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank my advisor, Vicki Callahan, for recognizing my potential to make a strong contribution to the field of film studies. She has challenged me repeatedly to unveil a strong knowledge base and set of skills that I was often slow to recognize and share through my scholarship. I have always appreciated her knowledge of my research topics, plus her encouragement to present a history and basis of analysis on a subject that has very few predecessors. I thank Gregory Jay for acknowledging my interests in the field of African American Studies and sharing his appreciation of what I have shared about Cinemas of the African Diaspora and correspondence with Black Popular Culture. Thanks to Sandra Jones, a fellow McNair scholar whose work, passion, and encouragement reinforced that it was possible to complete this project and pursue an academic career. I thank Shelleen Greene for offering very helpful strategies for research and writing, plus her wisdom on effective transitions into a career as an academic. Thanks to Robert Smith for his enthusiasm to learn more about the project, and offering his perspectives on ways to tie my research to other topics outside of film. A tremendous thanks to Portia Cobb, one of the few faculty members in my undergraduate years who inspired me to look beyond the scope of what I thought was a vast knowledge of cinema. My exposure to the Cinemas of the African Diaspora through her work as a Professor and Director of the Community Media Project inspired me to learn more about various approaches to film, filmmakers such as Charles Burnett and his colleagues at UCLA, and the urgency to write about and conduct research on black independent filmmakers. The Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement v Program at UW-Milwaukee exposed me to the possibility of pursuing a doctoral degree in a topic I was passionate about, and I have no idea where I would be today without it. It has shaped me as a scholar, a professional, and as a human being, and I thank Douglas Harder, Nichlos Ewoldt, and Desere Liddell for their support all these years. I thank my mother, Janice McFadden-Laske, and my brother, Cedric, for all of their support throughout my years in postsecondary education. They may have not always understood what I was doing or why I was doing it, but I hope they are elated that I completed what I set out to do. I dedicate this project to the memory of Lillie Williamson, Jessie J. McFadden, Flora Seefeldt, and Tomás Garrett-Rosas, Ph.D. Thank you for what you have done to lead me towards this journey. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction The Early Cinema of Charles Burnett— Portraits of Traditional and Contemporary Working-Class Masculine Identities in South Los Angeles 1 Chapter One: Several Friends and The Horse— The Role of Competency within Traditional and Contemporary Black Working-Class Male Identities 57 Chapter Two: Killer of Sheep—The Multiple Battles to Attain Self-Identity 91 Chapter Three: My Brother’s Wedding and To Sleep with Anger— The Clash of Masculine Identities 131 Chapter Four: Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property and Warming by the Devil’s Fire— The Restoration of Cultural Memory within a Masculine Identity 174 Conclusion: Lessons from Burnett’s Focus on Traditional and Contemporary Masculinities among Black Working-Class Men of South Los Angeles 215 Bibliography 231 Curriculum Vitae 248 vii 1 Introduction: The Early Cinema of Charles Burnett— Portraits of Traditional and Contemporary Working-Class Masculine Identities in South Los Angeles This dissertation focuses on Charles Burnett’s films from the latter half of the twentieth century (1969-1990) to examine how he captures multiple portraits of black men from working-class neighborhoods in South Los Angeles. The legacy of the Great Migration in South Los Angeles and the outcome of the Watts Revolt of 1965 are two key historical components. Each of these moments is important to understand the basis of how masculine identities are presented and constructed in relation to black male residents in the region. Burnett’s male characters embody conflict within themselves and among each other. His films offer an intimate insight into the lives of black working- class men onscreen in terms of where they live, what they do, and how they interact with their families and the surrounding community. These three dynamics are the basis of how characters construct and present particular notions of masculinity that responds to a moment in which they live. This study places the traditional and contemporary presentations of black working-class masculinity alongside more familiar models of black men prevalent in Los Angeles from World War II through the 1990s. I magnify specific characteristics in this timeframe shared between older residents who migrated from the South and younger residents either born in Los Angeles or moved to the city with their family at an early age. Younger residents struggle to determine the relevance of their elders’ past in the South to their lives. It is a dilemma that lies at the heart of the conflict they find themselves in with older residents. Burnett’s objective is to acknowledge the importance 2 of the advice and practices of their elders to the younger male characters, along with the historical situations that make it difficult for the younger generation to accept that advice and those practices. Burnett argues that such adherence makes these men accountable to the well-being of their family and community members. Male characters who abandon their southern roots embody a sense of false empowerment in which they eschew responsibility for themselves and disregard other people’s commitments and concerns. Class distinctions are a peripheral yet important dynamic in the construction and presentation of masculine identities in response to historical situations. These distinctions are informed by the way various male characters see themselves as men based upon the jobs they have (if any), the income they generate, and the informational and economic resources to which they have access. A further discussion of each film in the later chapters will identify the recognition of class distinctions and how they contribute to masculine identities that either conflict with or complement one another. This study is most concerned about black working-class masculinity as a series of multiple presentations.