eBook

Shaping the Future of African American Film

Ndounou, Monica White

2014,2019

Overview

In Hollywood, we hear, it's all about the money. It's a ready explanation for why so few black films get made-no crossover appeal, no promise of a big payoff. But what if the money itself is color-coded? What if the economics that governs film production is so skewed that no film by, about, or for people of color will ever look like a worthy investment unless it follows specific racial or gender patterns? This, Monica Ndounou shows us, is precisely the case. In a work as revealing about the culture of filmmaking as it is about the distorted economics of African American film, Ndounou clearly traces the insidious connections between history, content, and cash in black films.How does history come into it? Hollywood's reliance on past performance as a measure of potential success virtually guarantees that historically underrepresented, underfunded, and undersold African American films devalue the future prospects of black films. So the cycle continues as it has for nearly a century. Behind the scenes, the numbers are far from neutral. Analyzing the onscreen narratives and off-screen circumstances behind nearly two thousand films featuring African Americans in leading and supporting roles, including such recent productions asBamboozled, Beloved, and Tyler Perry'sDiary of a Mad Black Woman,Ndounou exposes the cultural and racial constraints that limit not just the production but also the expression and creative freedom of black films. Her wide-ranging analysis reaches into questions of literature, language, speech and dialect, film images and narrative, acting, theater and film business practices, production history and financing, and organizational history.By uncovering the ideology behind profit-driven industry practices that reshape narratives by, about, and for people of color, this provocative work brings to light existing limitations-and possibilities for reworking stories and business practices in theater, literature, and film.

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Subject: Actors / African American Film / African American motion picture producers and directors / African American Studies / African Americans in motion pictures / African Americans in the motion picture industry / ART / Techniques / General / Audience / Black / Black Experience / black films / Blockbuster / Box Office / Challenges / Cinema / Communications / Creativity / Criticism / cultural constraints / Culture / Culture of filmmaking / Directors / Distribution / Diversity / Economic aspects / Economics / Empowerment / Ethnic Studies / Exclusive / Film & Video / Film Studies / Finance / Financing / Future / History / History & Criticism / Hollywood / Identity / Impact / Inclusion / Independent Film / Industry / Influential / Innovation / Mainstream / Marketing / Media / Monica White Ndounou / Motion picture industry / Motion pictures / Narratives / Opportunities / people of color / PERFORMING ARTS / Perspectives / Producers / Race / racial constraints / Representation / Revealing / Screenwriters / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / General / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General / Social sciences / Sociology / Stereotypes / Storytelling / Studio System / Theory / Uncensored / United States / Visionary / Voices
• ISBN: 0813562570, 9780813562575, 0813562562, 9780813562568