Black women filmmakers

Black women filmmakers have contributed to the filmmaking industry across the world.^[1][2] There are disputes concerning whom the first black women filmmaker is, but the earliest director with undisputed evidence is Zora Neale Hurston, who created the film Children's Games in 1928.^[3]

Black women filmmakers

The film industry has been difficult for black women to break into. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for The Root, "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male."^[4] In her book Black Women Film and Video Artists, Jacqueline Bobo notes that "there is a substantial body of work created by Black women film/video makers, extending back to the early part of this century. Unfortunately, the work is overlooked not only by many distributors, but also by critical reviews and scholarly analyses, with the notable exception of those by Black women scholars, have been few and far between."^[5] One of the issues concerning the involvement of Black females in film making is not simply the involvement or lack in numbers, but the influence given to them. As Ada Gay Griffin examines in Seizing the Moving Image the issues in telling a Black story in film cannot be resolved by adding a couple of black actors or hiring black crews to produce the film, but by seizing control of the image as Griffin argues and this is done by gaining production ownership of the films which can be done by Black women gaining more Studio Executive positions in the film industry which is severely lacking.^[6] Therefore, when looking at Hollywood's industry Black women filmmakers become the most unnoticeable, they become existent only in the periphery of the industry. In other words, it may be somewhat apparent that Black women filmmakers are small in numbers but the fact of the matter is that there are many black woman filmmakers that are actively contributing to the film industry.

Jacqueline Bobo, an associate professor in the women's studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, argues that the general public sees Black women's works as small, irregular works of interest to small circle of intimate friends.^[7]

History

Jacqueline Bobo establishes that black women filmmakers have been productive throughout the twentieth century. Dating back to the 1900s, black women filmmakers have created a Genesis of a Tradition. Through Gloria J Gibson-Hudson's essay titled "The Ties That Bind: Cinematic Representations By Black Women Filmmakers," she notes that these black women have developed a framework or "commonalities" that evolved from social and historical circumstances.

Documentation exists of Black women producing and directing films during the prolific interim of Black film production from 1910 through the 1920s. Archivist and film scholar Pearl Bowser notes that Black women worked behind the camera on numerous films during this time on what were known as "race" films, that is, independent films produced by Black filmmakers, rather than white-controlled films about Black life. Historical records show that two women were especially noteworthy in filmmaking during this period. Madame C.J. Walker, one of the first Black millionaires, made her fortune manufacturing and distributing cosmetics and hair-care products for Black women. In addition to her retail business, Walker owned the Walker Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana and produced training and promotional films about her cosmetics factory. The theater still stands today and was recently purchased by IUPUI for renovations. These films, Bowser declares, "offered a visual record of women's work history" and the "development of cottage Industries." Bowser also points to the importance of Madam Toussaint Welcome, Booker T. Washington's personal photographer, who produced at least one film about Black soldiers who fought in World War I.^[8]

During the 1930s other pioneer Black female filmmakers included Zora Neale Hurston, a folklorist who created work centering on ethnographic films. Zora Hurston earned her MA in Cultural Anthropology at Columbia University. The film Children's Games, was directed by Hurston, and is the first non-silent film to be directed by a black woman.^[9] In addition, Eslanda Goode Robeson is another 1930's pioneer regarding Black female filmmakers. She too held a Ph.D. in anthropology and made ethnographic films similar to Hurston's reels. Similar to Hurston's films, they are available for viewing at the Library of Congress but their fragile conditions renders it inaccessible for public screening.

In 1991, Julie Dash became the first black female filmmaker to have a full-length general theatrical release in the US for her film Daughters of the Dust. The film was recognized in 1999 by the 25th annual Newark Black Film Festival as one of the most important cinematic achievements in black cinema in the 20th century. Daughters of the Dust was placed on the National Film Resgistry by the Library of Congress in 2004, making it one of 400 other American-made films that are preserved and protected as national treasures.^[10]

Ava DuVernay, a pioneer of black female filmmakers, became the first black woman to win the US Dramatic Directing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She received an Oscar nomination for her documentary 13th, and has also made history as the first black woman director to be nominated for a Golden Globe. DuVernay continued her career in filmmaking with her most recent film A Wrinkle in Time^[11] was released in 2018 with an estimated budget surpassing $100 million, which makes DuVernay the first black female to direct a live-action film with that large of a budget.^[12] She is set to direct New Gods, a Warner Bros. and DC Comics film, in 2019.^[13]

Selected black women filmmakers and filmography

See also

• L.A. Rebellion

References

Further reading

• Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey, Women Filmmakers of the African & Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity; 1997, Southern Illinois University Press, ISBN 978-0809321209
• hooks, bell (1996). Reel to real: race, sex, and class at the movies. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0415918235.

External links

• Sisters in Cinema: A Resource Guide for and About African American Women Feature Filmmakers
• Black Women Film Network
• African Women in Cinema