Race and U.S. Cinema

elective courses

Proficient command of English.

The ability to read literature and watch films in English.

The course discusses the history of representations of African Americans and the issue of race in U.S. films. On the one hand, it demonstrates the centrality of race in the milestones of American cinema; on the other, it examines independent productions and self-representations of African Americans. We will analyze tropes such as blackface, passing, or the black brute as well as genres such as blaxploitation, interracial buddy movie, and horror. The course introduces elements of cinema history and film form. The analyzed films will be accompanied by critical texts that introduce both the history of race relations in the U.S. and the history of cinema.

The course discusses the history of representations of African Americans and the issue of race in U.S. films. On the one hand, it demonstrates the centrality of race in milestones of American cinema such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) or “The Jazz Singer” by Alan Crosland (1927). On the other, it examines independent productions and self-representations of African Americans, beginning with Oscar Micheaux's "Within Our Gates" (1920), to Melvin Van Peebles's "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" (1971), to "Do the Right Thing" (Spike Lee 1989), to 21st-century films such as Barry Jenkins's "Moonlight" (2016). We will analyze tropes such as blackface, passing, or the black brute as well as genres such as blaxploitation, interracial buddy movie, and horror. The course introduces elements of cinema history and film form. The analyzed films will be accompanied by critical texts that introduce both the history of race relations in the U.S. and the history of cinema.

Films:

1. Ethnic Notions (Marlon Riggs, 1987)

2. The Birth of a Nation (David W. Griffith, 2015)

3. The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927), Illusions (Julie Dash, 1982)

4. Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959), Passing (Rebecca Hall, 2021)

5. Guess Who is Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967), The Defiant Ones, (Stanley Kramer, 1958)

6. Watermelon Man (Melvin Van Peebles, 1970), Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)

7. Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971), Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974)

8. Panther, (Mario Van Peebles, 1995), Judas and the Black Messiah (Shaka King, 2021)

9. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989), Poetic Justice (John Singleton, 1993)

10. Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991), Beloved (Jonathan Demme, 1998)

11. Suture (Scott McGehee and David Siegel, 1993)

12. Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012), Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018), 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)

13. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)

14. Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)

Supplementary filmography

13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)

Bones (Ernest R. Dickerson, 2001)

Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)

Candyman (Nia DaCosta, 2021)

Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997)

Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973)

I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)

Lovecraft Country (Misha Green, 2020)

Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992)

Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)

Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray, 2015)

Summer of Soul (Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, 2021)

Tales From the Hood (Spike Lee, 1995)

Us (Jordan Peele, 2019)

Vampires vs. the Bronx (Oz Rodriguez, 2020)

Bibliography

Baldwin, James. The Devil Finds Work. New York: Dell, 1970.

Berlant, Lauren. “National Brands, National Body: Imitation of Life.” The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture. Duke University Press, 2008, pp. 107-144.

Bogle, Tom. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. Continuum, 1989.

Brody, Richard. “The Enduring Urgency of Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ at Thirty”. The New Yorker, June 28, 2019.

Collins, Patricia Hill. “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images.” Black Feminist Thought. Routledge, 1990, pp. 67-78.

Gates Jr., Henry Louis. “’An Unfathomable Place’: A Conversation with Quentin Tarantino on Django Unchained (2012), Transition, vol. 112, 2013, pp. 47-66.

Gubar, Susan. “Spirit -Murder at the Movies. Blackface Lynchings.” Racechanges: White Skin, Black Face in American Culture. Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 53-94.

Guerrero, Ed. “The Rise and Fall of Blacksploitattion.” Framing Blackness. Temple University Press, 1993, pp. 69-111.

hooks, bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Routledge, 2015.

Rogin, Michael. "Democracy and Burnt Cork: The End of Blackface, the Beginning of Civil Rights.” Refiguring American Film Genres, edited by Nick Browne, University of California Press, 1998, pp. 171-207.

Stam, Robert and Louise Spence. “Colonialism, Racism and Representation: An Introduction.” The Film Studies Reader, edited by M. Jancovich et al. Arnold, 2000.

Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson. Princeton University Press, 2001.

Knowledge

K_W03 The graduate will be able to describe the methodology and recent developments in film studies and cultural studies on an advanced level.

- K_W04 The graduate will be able to describe the relation between American cinema and historical and cultural processes, with a focus on the history of race relations, on an advanced level.

K_W09 The graduate will be able to identify racial and cultural diversity in the USA and to recognize American cultural codes and structural and institutional background on an advanced level.

Abilities

K_U01 The graduate is able to employ the terminology and methodological tools from cultural studies to analyze American cinema.

K_U03 The graduate is able to analyze American cinema and draw generalizations concerning the social, historical, and economic context.

K_U04 The graduate is able to implement knowledge to describe a problem and identify means to solve it, thereby completing a project on race in American cinema.

Social competences

K_K05 The graduate is ready to function effectively in social and cultural interactions thanks to the ability to express oneself in a cohesive and lucid manner.

K_K06 The graduate is ready to value cultural heritage and cultural diversity.

Assessment methods and criteria for this course

Requirements:

Continuous assessment (class preparation, participation, response papers): 50%

Final test: 50%

Over 50% in each of the segments is required for passing the course.

Attendance: no more than 3 absences allowed

Make-up test: oral or written during the instructor's office hours.