Black Film and Television

In the early eighties, the peaceful, reclusive life of poet and writer Alice Walker was interrupted by the appearance of three extraordinary gifts: a widely praised best-selling novel (The Color Purple), the Pulitzer Prize, and an offer from Steven Spielberg to make her novel into a film that would become a major international event. The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult chronicles that period of transition, from recluse to public figure, and invites us to contemplate, along with her, the true significance of extraordinary gifts - especially when they are coupled, as in Walker's case, with the most severe criticism, overt hostility, and public censure from one's community of choice.

Book chapter by Jacqueline Bobo from "Say it Loud!" that was first Published in 2002.

This volume offers new readings of Alice Walker's The Color Purple from biographical, cultural, historical, and spiritual points of view. Section titled "“You’re black, you’re poor, you’re ugly, you’re
a woman. You’re nothin’ at all!”: (In)Visibility in
Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple (1985)."

In Food on Film: Bringing Something New to the Table, Tom Hertweck brings together innovative viewpoints about a popular, yet understudied, subject in cinema. This collection explores the pervasiveness of food in film, from movies in which meals play a starring role to those that feature food and eating in supporting or cameo appearances. Includes book chapter titled "From Disgust to Gustatory Pleasure: The Evolution of Alimentary and Moral Repulsion in Steven Spielberg’s 'The Color Purple.'"

Written specifically with the student in mind and focusing on a number of well-known texts, including Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Nicholas Nickleby, Nice Work and The Color Purple, the contributions in this book demonstrate how we can look critically at literary adaptations and learn to distinguish between mythical images and the reality of the process that constructed them. They argue that adaptations should not be seen as secondary or marginal, because through them we can enter into an exciting debate with the literary text itself. Originally published in 1993. Book chapter titled "FROM WALKER TO SPIELBERG Transformations of The Color Purple."

Book chapter titled "Black like him: Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple."

Since its publication in 1982, The Color Purple has resonated with generations of readers across the globe. The novel catapulted author Alice Walker to international fame, brought Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg acting acclaim in the 1985 film adaptation, inspired theatrical productions around the world, and a 2023 musical film. Now, an in-depth exploration celebrates The Color Purple's ever-expanding legacy as never before: Purple Rising features oral histories and fresh anecdotes based on more than fifty original interviews, as well as vibrant, never-before-seen images. It reveals the crucial real-life experiences that inspired the novel, and the transcendent humanity of its themes that continue to connect with audiences, each new adaptation speaking to the changing times and cultural contexts.

This text discusses how the film, 'Do The Right Thing' epitomises Spike Lee's powerful impact on the representation of race and difference in America, the progress of black film-making and the rise of multicultural voices in the media, and how it confonts institutional discrimination head on.

The book is a revealing and engaging look at Spike Lee's career, his creative process, and the screenplay for his dynamic movie Do The Right Thing.

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing brings together essays, specially written for this edition, that analyse this controversial film from a variety of methodological perspectives. Among the issues examined in this volume are the production history of the film, the use of music, and the urban sociology of New York in the 1980s. Collectively, these essays connect the inter-racial strife of New York as treated in Do the Right Thing with the contemporary social climate and racism in America. Also included are reviews of the film by influential critics, a large selection of production stills, and a complete bibliography.

Boyz N the Hood: Shifting Hollywood Terrain is an interdisciplinary examination of this iconic film and its impact in cinematic history and American culture.

In this book, Jon Towlson considers how Candyman might be read both as a "return of the repressed" during the George H. W. Bush era, and as an example of nineties neoconservative horror. He traces the project's development from its origins as a Clive Barker short story ("The Forbidden"); discusses the importance of its gritty real-life Cabrini-Green setting; and analyzes the film's appropriation (and interrogation) of urban myth. The book features an in-depth interview with Candyman's writer-director Bernard Rose.

Although proponents maintain the illusion that the militant enforcement of freemarket economics will resolve racism, climate change, and imperialism, their magical thinking actually fuels the crises. Magical Thinking, Fantastic Film, and the Illusions of Neoliberalism explores the ways in which the visual economies of Hollywood fantasy compliment this particular political economy.

Chapter titled "Makes Me Feel Mighty Real: The Watermelon Woman and the Critique of Black Visuality"

Chapter titled "Historical Fictions, Modern Desires: The Watermelon Woman."

Chapter title: "Stereotype, Mammy, and Recovery in Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman"

Chapter titled "PLANTATION MEMORIES: Cheryl Dunye’s Representation of a Representation of American Slavery in The Watermelon Woman"

Chapter titled “'Something in Her Face': Queering the Affection-Image in The Watermelon Woman"

Contains chapter on the film titled "Spike Lee's Bamboozled"

Critical Race Theory and Bamboozled, offers a concise introduction to Critical Race Theory in jargon-free language and shows how this theory can be deployed to interpret Spike Lee's critically acclaimed 2000 film Bamboozled.

This book compares the original version of the screenplay of the film Bamboozled (2000) with the Italian dubbed text, offering an analysis of forty-four compliments and forty-four insults.

Spike Lee's challenging film Bamboozled (2000) is often read as a surface level satire of blackface minstrelsy. Careful analysis, however, gives way to a complex and nuanced study of the history of black performance. This book analyzes the work of five men, minstrel performer Bert Williams, director Oscar Micheaux, writer Ralph Ellison, painter Michael Ray Charles, and director Spike Lee, all through the lens of this misunderstood film. Equal parts biography and cultural analysis, this book examines the intersections of these five artists and Bamboozled, and investigates their shared legacy of resistance against misrepresentation.

Chapter titled "He Said Nothing: Sonic Space and the Production of Quietude in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight"

Chapter title: "55Trauma: Black Boyhood and Moonlight"

This book helps readers understand Moonlight's profound political and social importance, the innovative technical choices adopted by director Barry Jenkins and the film's adoption and disruption of traditional coming-of-age themes through the specific prism of Chiron's childhood and youth.

Chapter titled "Moonlight, Adaptation, and Queer Time"

This book provides a concise introduction to critical race theory and shows how this theory can be used to interpret Jordan Peele's Get Out.

his companion paperback to the film presents Peele's Oscar-winning screenplay alongside supplementary material.

Jordan Peele's Get Out: Political Horror is a collection of sixteen essays devoted to exploring Get Out's roots in the horror tradition and its complex and timely commentary on twenty-first-century US race relations.

From Kara Walker's hellscape antebellum silhouettes to Paul Beatty's bizarre twist on slavery in The Sellout and from Colson Whitehead's literal Underground Railroad to Jordan Peele's body-snatching Get Out, this volume offers commentary on contemporary artistic works that present, like musical deep cuts, some challenging "alternate takes" on American slavery. Chapter by Mollie A. Godfrey -- "Stay Woke:" Post-Black Filmmaking and the Afterlife of Slavery in Jordan Peele's Get Out.

In Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon author Terence McSweeney explores the film from a diverse range of perspectives, seeing it not only as a comic book adaptation and a superhero film, but also a dynamic contribution to the discourse of both African and African American studies.

The anthology, which includes more than forty writers, film critics, scholars, and activists, has a timely appearance and should be able to reap some of the renewed media attention Black Panther has sparked. As may be discerned from the contributors the anthology is a compilation of mixed views and opinions--with both praise and a critique of the film.

Join creators, writers, and comics legends as they discuss the impact of Marvel Studios' Black Panther in this gorgeously illustrated collection of essays.

Panthers, Hulks, and Ironhearts offers the first comprehensive study of how Marvel has reimagined what a superhero might look like in the twenty-first century. It examines how they have revitalized older characters like Black Panther and Luke Cage, while creating new ones like Latina superhero Miss America. Furthermore, it considers the mixed fan responses to Marvel's recasting of certain "legacy heroes," including a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel, a Korean-American Hulk, and a whole rainbow of multiverse Spidermen.

Why Wakanda Matters gives this iconic film the in-depth analysis it deserves under the lens of the latest psychological concepts-as well as delving into the lasting cultural impact of this unforgettable story.