Third Cinema in the United States, 1960-67
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Copyright by Michael William O’Brien 2019 The Dissertation Committee for Michael William O’Brien Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: Third Cinema in the United States, 1960-67 Committee: Mary Beltrán, Supervisor Mia Carter Shanti Kumar Thomas Schatz Janet Staiger Third Cinema in the United States, 1960-67 by Michael William O’Brien Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people, without whom this dissertation would not have been possible: Mary Beltrán, Mia Carter, Janet Staiger, Tom Schatz, Shanti Kumar, Matthew Bernstein, Michele Schreiber, Daniel Contreras, Steve Fogleman, Marten Carlson, Martin Sluk, Hampton Howerton, Paul Monticone, Colleen Montgomery, Collins Swords, Asher Ford, Marnie Ritchie, Ben Philipe, Mike Rennett, Daniel Krasnicki, Charmarie Burke, Mona Syed, Miko, my students, and my family. iv Abstract Third Cinema in the United States, 1960-1967 Michael William O’Brien, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2019 Supervisor: Mary Beltrán This dissertation explores how cinema was an important outlet that artists and activists in the 1960s turned to in order to engage in cultural battles against various forms of institutional oppression. It links the aims and struggles of Americans making socially conscious films about racial discrimination to a broader category of image warfare known as Third Cinema. Third Cinema is generally applied to the notable proliferation of politically engaged films and revolutionary filmmaking theories developed in economically depressed and/or colonially exploited countries. This project seeks to answer the question of what Third Cinema might look like in a First World country in an attempt to better understand the social, cultural, industrial and political struggles involved in using film to foster social change. In connecting black-themed, revolutionary-inspired filmmaking in the United States from 1960-1967 to a broader atmosphere of global resistance to physically and mentally oppressive hegemonic forces, this dissertation provides a critical framework that offers a more informed and flexible approach to understanding the history and significance of representation and revolution in film. The year 1960 signaled a turning point for the representation of black Americans on national movie screens. The independent, black-themed filmmaking from this period v generally has been overlooked for reasons explored throughout this dissertation. This dissertation aims to reexamine, recontextualize and ultimately redeem a collection of texts that have been dismissed or ignored because of their lack of access to distribution channels and/or low production values. Each chapter considers the production and reception of a set of black-themed films from the 1960s and discusses them alongside developments in the American filmmaking industry, international and revolutionary cinematic movements, and the civil rights struggle. The films are analyzed for the ways in which they articulate a revolutionary impulse and the desire to promote social, cultural, and political change. Taken together, these film texts and the artists who created them demonstrate the possibilities of a radical cinema in America. vi Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION: Black and White Revolutions: American Third Cinema 1960-67 ..........................................................................................................................1 DISSENSIONS AND DIVISIONS .....................................................................................2 THIRD WORLD, THIRD CINEMA ..............................................................................12 “BLACK” FILM AND MEDIA .....................................................................................31 BLACK AESTHETICS .................................................................................................37 AMERICA DIVIDED ...................................................................................................41 HOLLYWOOD’S EXCESS AND DECLINE ....................................................................44 METHODS .................................................................................................................47 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................50 CHAPTER 1: Raisin in the Sun and the Emergence of a Race-Conscious Third Cinema in America ....................................................................................................64 COLUMBIA’S RAISIN .................................................................................................77 THE INTRUSION OF SEGREGATION ..........................................................................88 CHAPTER 2: A Third Second Cinema Rebellion – The New American Cinema Group and Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World ........................................................110 SECOND CINEMA ....................................................................................................111 SHIRLEY CLARKE AND THE NEW AMERICAN CINEMA .........................................117 THE CRUEL WORLD ...............................................................................................130 CHAPTER 3: Gone Are the Days! – Ossie Davis and the Struggle for a Black Cultural Renaissance ...............................................................................................159 OSSIE DAVIS IS PURLIE VICTORIOUS ....................................................................163 FILM EXHIBITION, MEDIA, AND DESEGREGATION IN THE EARLY 1960S ............188 vii CHAPTER 4: Nothing But a Man - Masculinity and Labor ......................................217 BETWEEN TOO MANY WORLDS ............................................................................218 BLACK LIKE ME ......................................................................................................221 ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO: AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO BLACK AND WHITE MARRIAGE ........................................................................................................233 NOTHING BUT A MAN: DIGNITY, DESTRUCTION, AND DEHUMANIZATION ...........248 LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD ..................................................................273 CHAPTER 5: Representations of Consequence .........................................................282 CUBA, BARAKA, AND DUTCHMAN ..........................................................................286 DUTCHMAN, OR, “JUST ANOTHER DEAD AMERICAN” ..........................................300 RIOTS, REPRESENTATION, AND RECEPTION .........................................................311 THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT IN HARLEM ..........................................................322 BLACK OFFENSE, WHITE DEFENSE .......................................................................328 SPIRIT HOUSE, THE NEW ARK, AND THE LATE 1960S ...........................................337 CONCLUSION: Pockets of Resistance and Cultural Forces for Change ................351 PHASE TWO: CULTURAL COLLECTIVE COMBAT ..................................................362 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................375 viii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Hansberry's cinematic screenplay for Raisin in the Sun. ................................83 Figure 1.2: The opening shots of The Intruder ..................................................................91 Figure 1.3: Exploitation poster for I Hate Your Guts (aka The Intruder) ........................101 Figure 2.1: In bed in the suburbs, hugging a bagful of free candy. .................................123 Figure 2.2: Nightmare images of poverty and hunger. ....................................................124 Figure 2.3: Opening shot of The Cool World. The preacher in close-up, direct address. 136 Figure 2.4: Tax Exemption. .............................................................................................137 Figure 2.5: The "White Devils" listen to the preacher's sermon. .....................................137 Figure 2.6: Creative geography showing the audience and faces of Harlem. ..................138 Figure 2.7: Close-up of the gun. ......................................................................................138 Figure 2.8: The exploitation campaign poster for The Cool World .................................152 Figure 3.1: Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and children protesting American presence in Vietnam .......................................................................................................162 Figure 3.2: The imagined violence of Purlie (Ossie Davis, right) beating the Cap'n. .....184 Figure 3.3: The opening scene from Gone Are the Days!. It is highly unlikely that Hollywood would have backed a film that opened in a black church as the members invited the audience in to celebrate the funeral of a white Southern plantation owner. .........................................................................187 Figure 4.1: Compilation of Iowa ads for Black Like Me..................................................225 Figure 4.2: John