Háskóli Íslands Hugvísindasvið Kvikmyndafræði Resisting the Norm: The Possibility of Revolutionary Black Cinema Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs Hrannar Már Ólínuson Kt.: 121092-3369 Leiðbeinandi: Björn Þór Vilhjálmsson September 2020 Abstract This thesis does an in-depth analysis of Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You in order to examine whether a Black revolutionary cinema has emerged in Hollywood. His film is invaluable in understanding the depiction of contemporary aesthetics in Black cinema as it is highly racial and politically charged. It also offers a way forward for Black cinema, perhaps even a revolutionary Black cinema, in its fusion of politics, style and narrative, as well as in its dismantling of generic boundaries. The thesis is broken down into three chapters. The first chapter will lay down the methodological blueprint that will ground the analysis of Riley's film. The literary genre of the fable will be adopted as it gives us an understanding of how Boots Riley activates fantastical elements in order to bring the film's moral message to the audience. The reading of Tzvetan Todorov’s The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, will supply the functions of the fantastical and in addition, so too will Rosemary Jackson’s Fantasy: Literature of Subversion to see the relationship between fantasy and the political in a social context. V.F. Perkins’s book Film as Film, will provide formal and aesthetic methodology when it comes to discussing the language of film. The second will be dedicated to the the historical and social context of the film in question. In regards to the film industry, Maryann Erigha has thoroughly examined how Hollywood’s fixation on profit has created a thinly veiled racial line where Black filmmakers are unable to gain proper access to significant financial backing for their films. The role of Hollywood and Blackness, which, as an example, can be depicted through its historical context, using Ed Guerrero’s book, Framing Blackness, which presents an analysis of the language Hollywood narrative has constructed in order to mediate certain fundamental political mechanics through racist imagery. By doing so, it will broaden our understanding of how Black aesthetics and culture came to be and how it appears in contemporary films. Chapter three will address the films analysis, Sorry to Bother You and how it aligns with the methodology previously outlined. The film is blatant in its confrontation towards its viewer of the contemporary zeitgeist that thrives in the United States, such as capitalism, race and class which brings forth the question whether Black revolutionary cinema has emerged? ii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction: How it All Goes Down ..................................................................................... 1 Becoming Vocal on Film ...................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Perkins and the Fantastical ............................................................................... 10 1.2 The Fable Shift ............................................................................................................. 12 1.3 Fantastic Fable Framing ............................................................................................. 14 1.4 Perkins the Pragmatist ................................................................................................ 15 1.5 The Unconventional Method ....................................................................................... 18 1.6 Conceptual Stratagems ................................................................................................ 25 Chapter 2: Birth of the Black Imagery ................................................................................ 28 2.1 Hollywood’s Exploitation ............................................................................................ 37 2.2 Segregated Hollywood ................................................................................................. 42 2.3 The Two Horsemen from Frankfurt .......................................................................... 44 2.4 The Reaganite White Backlash ................................................................................... 52 2.5 Black Aesthetic ............................................................................................................. 60 2.6 The Love and Theft of Blackness ............................................................................... 66 Chapter 3: Fable of the Socialist Revolutionary ................................................................. 69 3.1. Conform to the System ............................................................................................... 71 3.2 Fantasy Reality ............................................................................................................. 88 3.3 Fable Findings .............................................................................................................. 91 3.4 Sorry to Bother Perkins ............................................................................................... 94 3.5 Green Between Blue and Yellow ................................................................................ 96 3.6 Boots’ Range of Achievements .................................................................................. 105 Conclusion: The Revolution Will be Televised ................................................................. 109 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 111 Filmography ......................................................................................................................... 127 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 131 iii Introduction: How it All Goes Down The 91st Academy Awards was a significant event where the Black director Spike Lee was acknowledged for his achievement by winning the award for “Best Adapted Screenplay” for his film, BlacKKKlansman (2018).1 Although other black filmmakers have received prestigious awards for their achievements, what is noteworthy in this instance is how Lee’s film, Do the Right Thing (1989) was neglected by Hollywood at the time of its original release, and, furthermore, how his overall work has for decades never been widely acclaimed. Ironically, as Stephen Galloway points out in an article for The Hollywood Reporter, both Oscar nights, his first as well as his most recent (the 1990 and 2019 nights), Lee’s films were up against Driving Miss Daisy-type film.2 In 1990 it was in fact Driving Miss Daisy (1989) itself but in 2019 it was a virtual replica of the earlier film, Green Book (Peter Farelly, 2018), which won Best Picture, “a reheated version of Daisy's black-white/driver-passenger conceit that's faced similar accusations of being comfort food for liberals.”3 Before knowing the winners, Galloway expressed his optimism for a sea-change in Hollywood due to the social “effects of the #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo movements [...] and his embrace by a new generation of African-American filmmakers.”4 Galloway further articulates how “a shift within the Academy itself” has helped bring into being a more inclusive environment which Spike Lee underlines when he says, “[a]ny time there's an award, you should think about who's voting [...] [a]nd the membership of the Academy today is much more diverse than it was back then.”5 Spike Lee’s words in regards to Hollywood ring true in many respects. Lee began his career during the eighties, and since then, as noted above, there have been instances of Black filmmakers being embraced by, for example, the Academy. Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, 1 “The 91st Academy Awards: 2019,” Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accessed December 26, 2019, https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2019). In regards to the capital B in Black, the thesis is using the structure of Chicago Manual Style cites “ethnic groups by color are usually lower- cased”, but they also respect the publisher’s or author’s preferable choice. Therefore, this thesis will be using a capital B when in discourse of Black Americans as Lori Tharp eloquently said, “In so many ways, it’s about the lower- class way that Black people are perceived” [...] “And we are not a lower-class people.” For more information see; Meredith D Clark, “Making the Case for Black with a Capital B. Again.,” Poynter, August 24, 2015, https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2015/making-the-case-for-black-with-a- capital-b-again/.; Lori L. Tharp, “The Case for Black With a Capital B,” The New York Times, November 18, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/opinion/the-case-for-black-with-a-capital-b.html. 2 Stephen Galloway, “As 'BlacKkKlansman' Surges, It's No Longer Spike Lee vs. the Oscars,” Hollywood Reporter, February 5, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-no-longer-spike-lee-academy- 1182575). 3 Stephen Galloway, “As 'BlacKkKlansman', Surges,” (February 5, 2019). 4 Stephen Galloway, “As 'BlacKkKlansman', Surges, (February 5, 2019). 5 Stephen Galloway, “As 'BlacKkKlansman', Surges, (February 5, 2019). 1 and Jordan Peele have all been nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Director.”6 Similarly, the