Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 144
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7425-2642-6 • Paperback • March 2005 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
978-0-7425-6861-7 • eBook • March 2005 • $42.50 • (£33.00)
Mark A. Reid is professor of English and film at the University of Florida at Gainesville, where he teaches African Diasporic studies.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 1 Early African American Film, 1912–1940 and Beyond
Chapter 3 2 Black Family Film: The 1990s
Chapter 4 3 Black Action Film after Twenty Years
Chapter 5 4 Two African American Horror Films
Chapter 6 5 Black Female-Centered Film
Chapter 7 6 Black Independent Film: Haile Gerima's Sankofa
Chapter 8 Bibliography
Chapter 9 Selected Filmography
This book will make a solid addition to the growing library of recent black film studies. . . . Highly recommended for all film collections.
— Library Journal
Reid makes another substantial contribution to literature on African American film history and theory with this book. . . . The volume's six freestanding essays examine early African American film, black family film, black action film, black horror film, black female-centered film, and black independent film. Essential.
— Choice Reviews
In Black Lenses, Black Voices Mark Reid has given us an always interesting summation of his evolving, highly original analysis of black film as a cinema 'committed to the survival and wholeness of an entire people.'
— Thomas R. Cripps, Morgan State University
Mark Reid brings to our attention a complex and rich group of contemporary films, deftly setting them within their history in African American and Hollywood filmmaking. Always enlightening, never simple, Reid's work is significant for film criticism and for race and gender media analysis.
— Janet Staiger, University of Texas at Austin
—An engaging and inexpensive text or supplement for courses in African American film, contemporary cinema, film genre, film topics, and African American studies.
—Offers a selective survey of trends in contemporary black filmmakingand features close readings and analyses of films that are easily available for class showings.
—Gives a brief history of African American film, dating back to 1912.
—Looks at the work of directors such as Spike Lee, Mario Van Peebles, Forest Whitaker, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bill Duke, Kasi Lemmons, Melvin Van Peebles, Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Haile Gerima, Warrington Hudlin, Alile Sharon Larkin, Larry Clark, and Billy Woodberry, among others.
—Focuses one chapter on female-centered films, including additional analyses of Halle Berry's and Whoopi Goldberg's leading roles.
—Includes brief discussions of cultural and media images of African Americans and introduces students to postNegritude and womanist theories.