Essays
Original scholarship and criticism on Black independent cinema — histories, filmmaker profiles, and close readings of the films that shape this archive.
Black Is White Mask
Black Is, Black Ain’t by Marlon Riggs It might be customary to talk about an artwork or an artist, by beginning with a critique of what she or he didn’t do. It might be useful to point out that Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t often takes aim at fairly easy,...
Julie Dash – Daughters of the Dust
In 1991, Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust arrived as a landmark work of Black independent cinema, tracing the Peazant family's final day on the Sea Islands before their migration north. Shot with a painterly attention to Gullah Geechee custom and language, the film...
Julie Dash – Relatives
Relatives It might be customary to talk about an artwork or an artist, by beginning with a critique of what she or he didn’t do. It might be useful to point out that Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t often takes aim at fairly easy, predictable targets, like...
Halie Gerima – Child of Resistance
Children of Resistance It might be customary to talk about an artwork or an artist, by beginning with a critique of what she or he didn’t do. It might be useful to point out that Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t often takes aim at fairly easy, predictable...
Edward Bland – Cry of Jazz
Cry of Jazz It might be customary to talk about an artwork or an artist, by beginning with a critique of what she or he didn’t do. It might be useful to point out that Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t often takes aim at fairly easy, predictable targets, like...
Andrew Dosunmu – Mother of George
Mother of George It might be customary to talk about an artwork or an artist, by beginning with a critique of what she or he didn’t do. It might be useful to point out that Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t often takes aim at fairly easy, predictable targets,...
Spotlight Essays
A closer look at two essays from the collection.
Black Is White Mask
Marlon Riggs’s video Black Is, Black Ain’t takes aim at fairly easy, predictable targets, from Minister Louis Farrakhan to simplified, extreme nationalist positions—interrogating what it means to define Blackness.
Julie Dash – Daughters of the Dust
In 1991, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust arrived as a landmark work of Black independent cinema, tracing the Peazant family’s final day on the Sea Islands before their migration north.