african american cinema

Question 1

double consciousness

Answer 1

the sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, one ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder., said by WEB DuBois

Question 2

race film years

Answer 2

1915- early 1950s

Question 3

sydney poitier syndrome

Answer 3

a good boy in a totally white world, with no wife, no sweetheart, no woman to love or kiss, helping the white man solve the white man’s problem.

Question 4

why was hollywood’s market was struggling in the 1960s

Answer 4

• rise of television
• younger, more educated, ‘cultured’ filmgoers
• flood of foreign films into Hollywood’s once-sovereign domestic market
• lack of cultural verisimilitude represented in mainstream Hollywood because of its restrictive Production Code
• 5/6 films failed to make a profit; expensive blockbuster strategy was increasingly risky
• industry’s focus changed to distributing independently produced features, which opened the door to a range of new young filmmakers

Question 5

blaxploitation

Answer 5

the ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s.

Question 6

why did blaxploitation decline

Answer 6

• critical reception was sharpening and becoming increasingly outraged by the vulgarity, violence, and vanity.
• little for women viewers to identify with in the male-oriented violent/sexual fantasy.
• Jesse Jackson’s warning to boycott major theatres in 1972.
• CAB (coalition against Blaxploitation) NAACP, CORE, SCLC.

Question 7

what is a cross-over film

Answer 7

productions that would attract whites not normally inclined to attend a movie about blacks, usually produced by both african americans and whites