How is the issue of race dealt with in contemporary American cinema?
Items = 21
3X film
7X internet
4X books
3X film
7X internet
4X books
2X eBooks
2X PDF Files
1X magazine article
2X video
2X video
Item One: To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
I have chosen this as my focus film and for further research because it provides interesting comparison and discussion due to its difference in social context regarding eras. There are 34 years separating the release of this with my opposing films and the issue it explores were highly topical during the early 60's when this was released. Nevertheless the story was set 30 years earlier during The Great Depression as the civil rights movement was too controversial for contemporary cinema at that time to confront. Similarly to my other chosen films the narrative centres around a court case about a black man who is falsely accused of rape by a white woman. This will allow my discussion to explore how race is dealt with in terms of an ever changing American society and its attitudes. The link between this and the opposing films I have chosen will allow for in depth comparisons due to the change in society over the period between these films, comparisons which should lead to interesting arguments surrounding my question in order for me to explore the area of social context that I have chosen, race.
Item Two: A Time To Kill (1996)
This is one of my chosen films to discuss for this topic as it is set during the time it was actually made. It therefore represents its themes with the cultural attitudes of the mid 1990's rather than looking back in historical accounts, like my focus film. This and my other supporting film will allow me to explore the more contemporary aspect of race in American cinema, an insight which will be vital in answering my question. It clearly portrays racism within a community through the resurgence of the KKK after a young black girl is raped and her father takes revenge upon the white males responsible. The issues this narrative raises will be useful in order to explore my chosen topic and discuss how contemporary cinematic techniques and movie stars (Samuel L. Jackson) can be used to highlight recurring issues of racial conflict in American cinema. There are several scenes that I will use to debate how racism still exists, most notably in the Southern States, and how contemporary cinema provides a platform for cultural discourse in today’s society.
Item Three: Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) After watching this film concerning the reopened murder trial of a civil rights activist, on which a white man is being tried in the state of Mississippi; I have decided to use this as a film to discuss for my presentation script as I feel it will give me a chance to explore the nature of a different circumstance in relation to race and the law. Yet there was also very many similarities between this and my other films not only in narrative, but with characters and underlying themes. This gives me the impression that within these kinds of films, certain characters tend to be conventional no matter on the year in which they were made. I think that using another contemporary film in order to explore this topic similarities in context between this and A Time To Kill will allow me to back up the ideas that I am planning on discussing, giving me a more precise selection of research and opinions. Whilst again exploring the idea of contemporary Hollywood cinema acting as a podium displaying the American societies ideals on race and racism.
Item Four: http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue11/conscience.html
This article contains different discussions over a multiple number of topics, some which may be useful when answering my question and preparing my presentation script. It is an article which focuses on two films of Robert Mulligan and his racial consciousness throughout these two films: To Kill A Mockingbird and Clara’s Heart. There is definitely some viewpoints stated in this article that I plan on exploring in my presentation script as overall, the section on TKAM and its racial themes turns into a poor critique which I will be able to use in comparison with my other two more contemporary American films. I think that this will be incredibly useful when I come to writing my script and answering my question as it will give me some quotes to use and back up my ideas as well as given me even more points and opinions to explore at a further level.
Item Five: http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1977/timekill.html
This resource is a film review of A Time To Kill, written in 2009 before the films blu ray release: it was one of the very few things that I could find available online which discusses the racial factors of A Time To Kill even if it is only in a small way. There are some clear opinions given by the writer about how he feels the racial elements of this storyline are offensive and although he praises the film making itself he begins to question the way in which it deals with its controversial issues. I think that this might come in useful for my presentation script in order to gain quotes from the writer on his opinions, although there isn’t much in the article to help develop my research and writing reach higher than a satisfactory level. The fact that the quotes I will use from this will be realistic opinions of the portrayal of race in this film should help to further enhance any similar points I try to make.
Item Six: Redefining Black Film (Mark A Reid) Book
Here is a book surrounding the production of “Black Film” within Hollywood and assessments of work by black film makers and writers as well as exploring different genres of black film. This book is a fair length and so it would be unrealistic so say that exploring all the ideas shown within this book is something that I am planning on doing in my presentation script. However through the use of particular chapters within this book it may begin to deepen my research into particular areas if there is something that I come across when reading this book that should be explored further. As well as giving me a further source that I can quote from in order to back up any similar points that I make in relation to the book itself.
Item Seven: Representing Blackness, Issues in Film and Video (Valarie Smith) Book
I think that this book will be of key importance when I come to writing my presentation script, although it does not specifically relate to any of my chosen films; due to my research project being a social study and my question being open to all areas of contemporary American cinema as well as older films to show comparison this will not matter. The entire book is on the topic of my question, this will mean that throughout the book there will be useful quotes and links to other films and scenes which will help to back up any of the arguments that I have, as well as helping me find new ones If I get stuck. Although when writing my script I will only to stick to particular areas of the American films which I find most important in reflecting the representation of race between my chosen films; this book allows me for a large spectrum of possible areas of this to choose from and use to back up my points.
Item Eight: http://www.qualitativesociologyreview.org/ENG/Volume7/QSR_3_2_Moore_Pierce.pdf
This will be an incredibly useful resource when I begin to write my presentation script, that much I am sure. This is a sociology review written by an American teacher, it is solely focused on the depiction of the “white male lawyer” character within black American cinema. This is a character I plan to discuss within my presentation script as it is a character type which appears in each of my chosen films, and that which the narrative is focused upon. This resource links together each of my films in terms of this character at different points through the paper, and therefore should lead me to not only discuss factors within these films that depict race, but also to compare them, giving me the opportunity to quote someone who has also found these similarities.
Item Nine: Waking In Mississippi (Documentary)
This is a documentary framed around the city, Canton where A Time to Kill is based, it involves interviews with black residents and their opinions on the history of civil rights in the city and how this has changed through the production of the film. I think that this will be useful for my presentation script as I will be able to refer to the views of real life citizens and maybe even show clips from this alongside relevant clips from my chosen films.
Item Ten: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7QIrg3cBeXIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (Ebook)
This is an Ebook copy of "Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader" the book contains multiple chapters of different theories and explanations of the transformation of views on race over the years. Although this book includes some sections which will not be useful or of importance to my question, I think that certain chapters including that of “the conservation of race” and “racial beliefs of America” will come in useful to add to my knowledge and understanding of the contextual elements of the question and my ideas surrounding the films and the time they were made.
Item Eleven: ttp://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/interview-12-minutes-w-steve-mcqueen-on-12-years-a-slave-his-brand-his-blackness-more
Here is an article which features the transcript of an interview with director Steve McQueen on his new film 12 Years A Slave focused around black slavery in America. In this transcript there is a slight reference to the fact that McQueen is a black film director as the interviewer questions whether or not this influences the decisions he makes during his production. This article contains a lot of interesting information on the film itself; however it does not delve that deep into the social aspects of the film or the any representations of black characters. There is an interesting quote from McQueen in the middle of the transcript which may be useful in backing up an argument that I could make during my presentation script, however, this is an argument which I am unsure as to whether I will use or not because of my limited word count.
Item Twelve: David Oyelowo interview (Empire Magazine, February 2013 issue)
This is an interview in Empire magazine with David Oyelowo on 2012 racial based film Red Tails and being an upcoming black actor in Hollywood. I think this will be interesting to use in my presentation script as it involves opinions from an actor currently working in Hollywood discussing the problems he faces due to his race. Use of this will enable me to add further context about the issue I'm discussing into my work rather than just representations shown through the use of cinema, as well as developing ideas which relate in a much more broader sense to the question.
Item Thirteen: http://www.slideshare.net/belair1981/how-does-contemporary-representation-compare-to-previous-time-periods
This is a slide share document written about the representations in contemporary British Media in comparison to previous time periods, for the topic involved, this document is not very long and therefore does not go into much detail about particular areas of interest to me. However, I think that it may be a useful comparison to involve information on representations of British cinema as well as American as stated in the question. This will ultimately depend on the overall structure of my final presentation script and whether or not I have the characters available to involve this information due to limited word count; this may end up being an important part of my presentation script yet I am not too sure until I write it how much as some of my other sources will be more important to discuss.
Item Fourteen: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.19.96/ghost-mississippi-9651.html
This is one of my limited resources which links to the representation of race that is shown within Ghosts of Mississippi rather than my other two supporting films. This is an online article concerning the film and its white director; it explores the idea of the white characters being much more dominant within this film in comparison to the white characters. This is a theme throughout my chosen films which I would like to develop further and this article will give me the insight and quotes to do so for this film in particular. tem Fifteen: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1603622
This downloadable PDF of a document 50 pages long is about the construction of race and law in contemporary American cinema. I think that this will be useful to quote within my presentation script when discussing the similarities of the court cases from all of my selected films as it links them all in a similar way that item eight also does. Yet this document explores different issues which could be seen to be more relevant to parts of my question as it does not only focus upon the character type used but has a broader sense about it. This document also uses quotes of its own from other relevant sources and so does not limit the topics which it chooses to discuss and therefore should become very useful for my script as I can use multiple quotes from different sources whilst also being able to use this to develop any possible arguments that I have.
Item
Sixteen: http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue11/mockingbird.html
This is an article by Richard Armstrong on the issues surrounding To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a segment within this article on the civil rights struggle that is portrayed within the film that is around three paragraphs long. In this section of the article there is some clear information on the civil rights movement during this time and therefore some of this will be useful when I come to write my presentation script as it will allow me to discuss context of the civil rights era in relation to TKAM itself. However, there is not much information on how this film and its representations had an impact on the society of the time or even how other films of this era resembled this: and so this may mean that there isn’t that much useful information in this article yet I think that the information it does contain will be useful for the contextual reference I will make in my script
Item Seventeen: Black American cinema (By Manthia Diawara)
This is a book which includes essays on different areas of black cinema in America, and is apparently the first book written which criticizes black cinema and gives attention to early black film makers. This may be useful for my presentation script because of the topic in which it is based around, however it is possible that I will not get to explore some of the opinions shared in the book, which may have been of interest, due to it not having a clear link with any of my chosen films. There are many arguments raised about black American films such as the representation of the white female that I will have no use in discussing as although it becomes an interesting point within my topic it does not link with the films I have chosen to discuss. However there are some interesting ideas and therefore areas for discussion raised in this book on the film industry itself during the times of production for these films, so I think it will be useful to add further context to my work.
Item Eighteen: White Screen Black Images – Hollywood from the Dark side
This is another book focusing on black Americans within films; the whole book is very broad on the films which it chooses to discuss however this means that there is also a broad spectrum of quotes and opinions on the representation of race throughout Hollywood. Like most of the other books I have found on this subject, I will use this to refer to quotes and ideas which back up what I am discussing at the time, specifically contextual reference to the links it contains with the black film industry. I think that this will come in useful when writing my presentation script as I will be able to refer to it to back up my ideas further, yet it is possible that I will not refer to it that much when writing because of the amount of books that I also have in my catalogue; It will all depend on what I am writing about at the time and which books have the useful quotes at the time.
Item Nineteen: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TvyGv9JbRs0C&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=a+time+to+kill+ghosts+of+mississippi+race+representation&source=bl&ots=uJeLsWKBpU&sig=2s1IqyGrRW9RXkoDeGB0bI7g1d0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=F9KqUtPeGMGmhAfi0IDgAg&ved=0CEsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=a%20time%20to%20kill%20ghosts%20of%20mississippi%20race%20representation&f=false
This is another Ebook which I think will come in useful when
discussing my chosen films and their similarities, this reference also links
each of my films together due to the similarities they have in terms of
narrative structure. This book, although it also explores the idea of gender
within films in relation to the law, goes into depth discussing how the
outcomes and narrative of my chosen films reflect the society’s negative
opinion on race even in the more contemporary films. It is a book which I am
certain to quote from when discussing the “racial progress” of my chosen films
as this is included in a particular chapter revolving about both A Time To Kill
and Ghosts of Mississippi.This is an article by Richard Armstrong on the issues surrounding To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a segment within this article on the civil rights struggle that is portrayed within the film that is around three paragraphs long. In this section of the article there is some clear information on the civil rights movement during this time and therefore some of this will be useful when I come to write my presentation script as it will allow me to discuss context of the civil rights era in relation to TKAM itself. However, there is not much information on how this film and its representations had an impact on the society of the time or even how other films of this era resembled this: and so this may mean that there isn’t that much useful information in this article yet I think that the information it does contain will be useful for the contextual reference I will make in my script
Item Seventeen: Black American cinema (By Manthia Diawara)
This is a book which includes essays on different areas of black cinema in America, and is apparently the first book written which criticizes black cinema and gives attention to early black film makers. This may be useful for my presentation script because of the topic in which it is based around, however it is possible that I will not get to explore some of the opinions shared in the book, which may have been of interest, due to it not having a clear link with any of my chosen films. There are many arguments raised about black American films such as the representation of the white female that I will have no use in discussing as although it becomes an interesting point within my topic it does not link with the films I have chosen to discuss. However there are some interesting ideas and therefore areas for discussion raised in this book on the film industry itself during the times of production for these films, so I think it will be useful to add further context to my work.
Item Eighteen: White Screen Black Images – Hollywood from the Dark side
This is another book focusing on black Americans within films; the whole book is very broad on the films which it chooses to discuss however this means that there is also a broad spectrum of quotes and opinions on the representation of race throughout Hollywood. Like most of the other books I have found on this subject, I will use this to refer to quotes and ideas which back up what I am discussing at the time, specifically contextual reference to the links it contains with the black film industry. I think that this will come in useful when writing my presentation script as I will be able to refer to it to back up my ideas further, yet it is possible that I will not refer to it that much when writing because of the amount of books that I also have in my catalogue; It will all depend on what I am writing about at the time and which books have the useful quotes at the time.
Item Twenty:
http://ballotpedia.org/California_Affirmative_Action,_Proposition_209_(1996)
This is a simple definition of the California 209 proposition which was appointed in 1996, the same year in which ATTK and GOM were also released. This will be needed to quote from in my presentation script as it is an important factor when making contextual points of society’s opinion of race within the 90s. The fact that this law was passed in California, the home of American cinema also adds to the importance of this in terms of context and time.
Rejected items:
Red Tails (2012)This is a simple definition of the California 209 proposition which was appointed in 1996, the same year in which ATTK and GOM were also released. This will be needed to quote from in my presentation script as it is an important factor when making contextual points of society’s opinion of race within the 90s. The fact that this law was passed in California, the home of American cinema also adds to the importance of this in terms of context and time.
Item Twenty One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_sFDUlvxM
This resource is an external video that I intend to play within my presentation
in order to give the audience an further understanding into the context surrounding
the civil rights era. It is a montage video I sourced from YouTube which
features a number of different civil rights speeches from the 1960s including
Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech and others from Malcom X
and John F. Kennedy. Using this as a visual reference to the background context
I will be discussing will help to create my presentation much more interactive whilst
also helping the back up other quotes and contextual analysis I will use.Rejected items:
This was one of the films which I had considered using for discussion within my presentation script, it is again a film directed by a famous white director however issues surrounding its release and marketing were something which fascinated me and I wished to discuss. When it came for director George Lucas to market this film he struggled to gain the backing of other companies as it was a film with the majority of the cast being black, which was a necessary for this film as it concerned the Tuskegee air pilots of WW2. It began to show to me how racial acceptance is obviously still a problem for audiences of American films as well as the industry as even such a well known director was unable to gain backing for his film due to the colour of the characters skin. Although I had managed to find plenty of other resources and information concerning this and was interested in bringing this up for discussion within my script, it was not closely related enough to other topics I wanted to discuss and my other films to justify this. In order for me to discuss this at a more than satisfactory level I would have to purely focus around this idea and rethink my other resources. And so I chose an American race film which linked more closely with my chosen films in order to create a more concentrated and specific ideas I will be able to explore in much more detail than I would do if I made the question more broad by adding this topic in.
http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3084
This is a review of the book “Mixed Raced Hollywood” and although it initially looked intriguing and that it would contain some particular quotes which I could use in my presentation script after taking a closer look I think it will be more useful to take a look into the actual book itself. This article gives a lowdown on the articles which are in the book but not much detail into what information they might give me: so I will do further research into using this book as a part of my catalogue.
http://www.raindance.org/comparing-representation-of-race-in-american-cinema-and-video-games/
This is an article which mainly focuses on the representation of race in American video games rather than cinema, it is a more contemporary reflection of race in the media however there is not much information on American cinema and so I do not think it will be that useful when I come to write my presentation script.
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=sundiata_chajua&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Da%2Btime%2Bto%2Bkill%2Brace%2Brepresentation%26src%3Die9tr#search=%22time%20kill%20race%20representation%22
When I first discovered this document I thought it was a steal as it was titled very similarly to my actual question, yet just focusing on TKAM. However after spending my time reading the entire document I realised that it was actually based around the book written by Harper Lee which the film is also based. This means that the information included in this document will not be useful to my overall study of this topic and American Cinema as it is about literature. However, there is some social issues that are raised and explored in this article on the time the book was set as well as about civil rights of the surrounding times, and so I may be able to use some of this information which is summed up quite well rather than researching for another book.
http://www.utoronto.ca/innis/library/racerep.html
This is a link to a resource page on finding references to black representation in cinema created by the university of Toronto and there cinematic studies department. This has been very useful in finding information on my chosen topic and where to look for further resources as there are lists of dozens of books and articles which may have came in useful. Although this gave me a broad spectrum of things to look at, it enabled me to create in depth research on my topic and expand the types of research I looked at. This has already been incredibly useful in creating my annotated catalogue but due to the type of resource this is it will not be useful in creating my presentation script.
This is a review of the book “Mixed Raced Hollywood” and although it initially looked intriguing and that it would contain some particular quotes which I could use in my presentation script after taking a closer look I think it will be more useful to take a look into the actual book itself. This article gives a lowdown on the articles which are in the book but not much detail into what information they might give me: so I will do further research into using this book as a part of my catalogue.
http://www.raindance.org/comparing-representation-of-race-in-american-cinema-and-video-games/
This is an article which mainly focuses on the representation of race in American video games rather than cinema, it is a more contemporary reflection of race in the media however there is not much information on American cinema and so I do not think it will be that useful when I come to write my presentation script.
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=sundiata_chajua&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Da%2Btime%2Bto%2Bkill%2Brace%2Brepresentation%26src%3Die9tr#search=%22time%20kill%20race%20representation%22
When I first discovered this document I thought it was a steal as it was titled very similarly to my actual question, yet just focusing on TKAM. However after spending my time reading the entire document I realised that it was actually based around the book written by Harper Lee which the film is also based. This means that the information included in this document will not be useful to my overall study of this topic and American Cinema as it is about literature. However, there is some social issues that are raised and explored in this article on the time the book was set as well as about civil rights of the surrounding times, and so I may be able to use some of this information which is summed up quite well rather than researching for another book.
http://www.utoronto.ca/innis/library/racerep.html
This is a link to a resource page on finding references to black representation in cinema created by the university of Toronto and there cinematic studies department. This has been very useful in finding information on my chosen topic and where to look for further resources as there are lists of dozens of books and articles which may have came in useful. Although this gave me a broad spectrum of things to look at, it enabled me to create in depth research on my topic and expand the types of research I looked at. This has already been incredibly useful in creating my annotated catalogue but due to the type of resource this is it will not be useful in creating my presentation script.
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