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Black Women Filmmakers
Black women filmmakers have made contributions throughout the history of film. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for ''The Root'', "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. In 2020, 74.6 percent of movie directors of theatrical films were white, showing a small decrease from the previous year. In terms of representation, 25.4 percent of film directors were of ethnic minority in 2020. Of the 25.4 percent of black filmmakers, a small percentage was female. Around 30 percent of film makers are women, and approximately 7 percent of all film makers in the film industry are African-American. Many of the dramas by black women film makers have portrayed subjects such as racism and misogyny. Television programs, and films such as '' I May Destroy You'', ''Daughters of the Dust'', and '' Middle of Nowhere'' are a few examples of audio/visual media that have portrayed issues centered around a community of African-American women. Since the early 1900s black women have used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Film
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public screening of ten of the Lumière brothers' short films in Paris on 28 December 1895 can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. There had been earlier cinematographic results and screenings by others like the Skladanowsky brothers, who used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895 in Berlin, but they lacked neither the quality, financial backing, stamina, or the luck to find the momentum that propelled the cinématographe Lumière into worldwide success. Those earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade of motion pictures saw film mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathleen Collins
Kathleen Collins (March 18, 1942 – September 18, 1988) (also known as Kathleen Conwell, Kathleen Conwell Collins or Kathleen Collins Prettyman) was an African-American poet, playwright, writer, filmmaker, director, civil rights activist, and educator from Jersey City, New Jersey. Her two feature narratives—''The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy'' (1980) and '' Losing Ground'' (1982)—furthered the range of Black women's films. Although ''Losing Ground'' was denied large-scale exhibition, it was among the first films created by a Black woman deliberately designed to tell a story intended for popular consumption, with a feature-length narrative structure. Collins thus paved the way for Julie Dash's ''Daughters of the Dust'' (1991) to become the first feature-length narrative film created by a Black woman to be placed in commercial distribution. Influenced by Lorraine Hansberry, she wrote about "African Americans as human subjects and not as mere race subjects" mphasis in the or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with Poly(methyl methacrylate), acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the bare budgets of independent films. Since 2006, winners have received a metal trophy depicting a bird with its wings spread sitting atop of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit Awards. Now called the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the show is produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization that used to produce the LA Film Festival. Film Independent members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards. The awards show is held inside a tent in a parking lot at the beach in Santa Monica, California, usually on the day before the Academy Awa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love & Basketball
''Love & Basketball'' is a 2000 American romantic sports drama film written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood in her feature film directorial debut. The film is produced by Spike Lee and Sam Kit and stars Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps. It tells the story of Quincy McCall (Epps) and Monica Wright (Lathan), two next-door neighbors in Los Angeles, who are pursuing their respective basketball careers before eventually falling for each other. ''Love & Basketball'' was released on April 21, 2000 in the United States. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise directed at the performances of Lathan and Epps, Prince-Bythewood's direction and script, and the emotional weight of the film. Nevertheless, it grossed $27.7 million worldwide on a production budget of $14–20 million. Over the years, the film has developed a dedicated following, cementing its place in popular culture, and establishing itself as a cult classic. Plot Since childhood, Monica Wright and Quincy McCa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Gina Maria Prince-Bythewood (born June 10, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing the films ''Love & Basketball'' (2000), ''Disappearing Acts'' (2000), '' The Secret Life of Bees'' (2008), ''Beyond the Lights'' (2014), '' The Old Guard'' (2020), and ''The Woman King'' (2022). Early life Prince-Bythewood was born in Los Angeles, California, and adopted by Bob Prince, a computer programmer, and Maria Prince, a nurse, when she was 3 weeks old. Her adoptive father is white and her adoptive mother is of Salvadoran and German descent. She grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of Pacific Grove, California. She has four siblings through her adoptive family. In 1987, Prince-Bythewood graduated from Pacific Grove High School. She attended UCLA's film school, where she also ran competitive track. At UCLA, she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduates. She graduated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is an adaptation of the initialism ', which began to replace the term ''gay'' (or ''gay and lesbian'') in reference to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. When not inclusive of transgender people, the shorter term LGB is still used instead of LGBT. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, ', adds the letter ''Q'' for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity. The initialisms ''LGBT'' or ''GLBT'' are not agreed to by everyone that they are supposed to include. History of the term The first widely used term, '' homosexual'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Watermelon Woman
''The Watermelon Woman'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. It stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical " mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the period. ''The Watermelon Woman'' is the first feature film directed by a black lesbian and is considered a landmark in New Queer Cinema. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Cheryl is a 25-year-old African-American lesbian who works at a video rental store in Philadelphia with her friend Tamara. She is interested in films from the 1930s and 1940s that feature Black actresses, noting that the actresses in these roles are often not credited. After watching a film titled ''Plantat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye (; born May 13, 1966) is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film ''The Watermelon Woman.'' She runs the production company Jingletown Films based in Oakland California. Early life Dunye was born in Monrovia, Liberia and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She first attended Michigan State University where she was in the political theory program due to her desire to make a change and have an impact on the world. When she realized she could use media as a tool in her political activism, she ended up in the filmmaking program at Temple University in Philadelphia. She received her BA from Temple and her MFA from Rutgers' Mason Gross School of Art. While at Temple University, Dunye made her first ever video project for h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newark Black Film Festival
The Newark Black Film Festival (NBFF), held every summer since 1974 at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey, is the longest running Black film festival in the United States. The NBFF focuses on the work and history of African Americans and the African Diaspora. Screenings are typically followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers and scholars. The Newark Black Film Festival Paul Robeson Awards began as a biennial competition in 1985. Festival screenings are held in the Billy Johnson Auditorium at the Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Af .... The Festival is free of charge to the public and receives funding in the form of grants from various foundations and corporations. References African-American cinema African-American festivals Film festivals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Dry White Season
''A Dry White Season'' is a 1989 American drama film directed by Euzhan Palcy and starring Donald Sutherland, Jürgen Prochnow, Marlon Brando, Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon. It was written by Colin Welland and Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel ''A Dry White Season''. Robert Bolt also contributed uncredited revisions of the screenplay. It is set in South Africa in 1976 and deals with the subject of apartheid. Brando was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Plot In 1976, in South Africa during apartheid, Ben Du Toit (Donald Sutherland) is a South African school teacher at a school for whites only. One day, the son of his gardener, Gordon Ngubene (Winston Ntshona), gets beaten by the white police after he gets caught by the police during a peaceful demonstration for a better education policy for black people in South Africa. Gordon asks Ben for help. After Ben refuses to help because of his trust in the police, Gordon gets caught by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sugar Cane Alley
''Sugar Cane Alley'' ( French title: ''La Rue Cases-Nègres'') is a 1983 film directed by Euzhan Palcy. It is set in Martinique in the 1930s, when Africans working sugarcane fields were still treated harshly by their white employers. It is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Joseph Zobel of the same title (alternatively translated as ''Black Shack Alley''; literally "Street of the Houses of Negroes"). Synopsis José, the protagonist, is a young boy living in a rural part of Martinique in the 1930s. Many of the people around him, including his grandmother, Ma'Tine, with whom he lives, work in the sugar cane fields where they are browbeaten and badly paid by the white boss. Ma'Tine is chronically ill, suffering several heart episodes, but continues to recover from them and continue her work to support José. José, an orphan, has a father figure in an elderly man named Medouze who likes to tell him stories about Africa. José attends school at the insistence of his grandmother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euzhan Palcy
Euzhan Palcy (; born 13 January 1958) is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films are known to explore themes of race, gender, and politics, with an emphasis on the perpetuated effects of colonialism. Palcy's first feature film '' Sugar Cane Alley'' (1983) received numerous awards including the César Award for Best First Feature Film. For directing ''A Dry White Season'' (1989), she became the first black female director to have a film produced by a major Hollywood studio, that being by MGM. Palcy also directed the independent film '' Siméon'' (1992). She has since moved towards directing documentaries and television projects such as ''Aimé Césaire: A Voice for History'' (1994). She then directed the television films ''Ruby Bridges'' (1998) and ''The Killing Yard'' (2001), as well as the documentary ''The Journey of the Dissidents'' (2005) and the miniseries ''The Brides of Bourbon Island'' (2007). Throughout her career, Palcy has explored various genr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
