Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971 Curriculum Guide

Activity: Individual writing assignment

uploads/2020/12/YJC_report_11.pdf.

Mother Barton: “Basically, the reform school system.” Reform school official: “I wouldn’t say that, Mother Barton.” Mother Barton: “It’s the truth, and you know it! Unfortunately, there’s a disgrace attached to anyone coming from a reform school and when the news circulates that boys were inmates, they can’t get jobs. They finally become desperate and disillusioned. There’s only one last resort for them—they turn to crime, just to get enough food to keep life in their bodies.”

“Perhaps it was just serendipity that so many classics were released in 1939 or just the inevitable culmination of great art. Talkies had been established for a decade, with film techniques improving all the time, and European emigres were putting their own very personal stamp on directing and screenwriting. And then there were the leading actors, of course, mostly discovered, nurtured, and launched into superstardom by the studios and eagerly embraced by audiences who, in 1939 alone in the US, purchased cinema tickets at a rate of 80 million a year. Films were devised with the stars in mind and prestigious novels such as Wuthering Heights and blockbusters like Gone with the Wind would be purchased and filmed brilliantly with no expense spared. So, all these reasons and more contributed to a golden year for movies, and perhaps also there was a feeling even among the insular and self-absorbed of Hollywood that war was inevitable, and things could never be quite the same again afterwards.” 6. “ History of Million Dollar Productions ,” scvhistory.com, at https://scvhistory. com/scvhistory/cp3908.htm. 7. Michelle Alexander. The New Jim Crow . Tenth-anniversary edition, 2020. “And yet, in the midst of all of this, we also have vibrant racial justice movements led by new generations of activists who are working courageously at the intersections of our systems of control as well as growing movements against criminal injustice led by those who are directly impacted by mass incarceration. Many of these movements aim to redefine the meaning of justice in America. “Today, there is bipartisan support for some prison downsizing, and hundreds of millions of philanthropic dollars have begun to flow toward criminal justice reform. A vibrant movement led by formerly incarcerated and convicted people is on the rise—a movement that has challenged or repealed disenfranchisement laws in several states, mobilized in support of sentencing reform and successfully organized to ‘ban the box’

Explore: Research and group discussion

Rewatch the chase sequence and create a shot breakdown to analyze the techniques the filmmakers used to build tension in the scene.Incorporate the following elements: • MISE EN SCENE • Number of cuts • Duration and pacing of shots (Where does it speed up? Where does it linger?) • Type of shot (long shot, medium-shot, CLOSE-UP) • Sound • Dialogue

The timeline of the exhibition Regeneration spans from 1898 to 1971.

• What are some significant markers of US history during that time period?

Explore: Group discussion

Reform School was released in 1939.

• Compare the Depression-era film to our present context. How have conditions changed? Remained the same? Regressed? Since the release of Reform School , the United States has gone through World War II, the civil rights era, progressive social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the Vietnam War, the War on Drugs, the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the resulting mass incarceration, 9/11 and the War on Terror, Black Lives Matter protests against police assaults on unarmed Black citizens, the elections of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Each of these moments has had consequences, positive and negative, for the incarceration and RECIDIVISM rates of Black citizens. In Reform School , Mother Barton expresses her hope for the future as she leaves the office of the cynical reform school officials: “It’s a dream, yes, a dream that’s going to come true.” Here, the filmmakers plant the seeds of future change. Reform School ends on an optimistic note. Yet, at the time of this writing in 2022, we know how many truths and frustrations still persist around racial inequity. While we as a country have not been able to eradicate systemic inequality, people and organizations carry on the struggle and effectively make incremental change.

• What is Mother Barton’s position on reform schools? How does the dialogue convey her views? • What happens if you swap the words “reform school” with “prison”? Does that change the dynamic of her statements? • Reflect on Mother Barton’s statements about reform and how American society treats people who need another chance after making mistakes. Do you think this is still a problem in society? Do you think social media has made this issue better or worse? • “Discipline should be tempered with justice and understanding.” How does that philosophical viewpoint fit with modern criminal justice reform? What is your reaction to Mother Barton’s statement “Guns and clubs are a thing of the past”? Do you think such a statement is true today? Activity: What is YOUR vision of reform? 1. Choose one quote or section of a quote to frame your own theme of reform. 2. Choose a platform for delivering your message. Some ideas: a PSA, podcast, or social media campaign. 3. Write an outline, shot list, or script detailing

Explore: Group discussion

• After completing the analysis, write about how the filmmakers achieved their goals on a tight budget. • How did the filmmakers communicate visually? • Think about the editing and cinematic

style of Reform School . How would you re- create this chase sequence with the more advanced technology available today?

THEME: TRANSFORMATIONAL JUSTICE

The running theme of Reform School is the impact of the penal system on Black youth and the roots of criminal justice reform in the late 1930s. This theme resonates today as we grapple with shockingly high rates of Black youth incarceration and the inequities of the juvenile justice system. According to the Haywood Burns Institute, a Black-led national nonprofit working to transform the administration of justice: “Research affirms the significant overrepresentation of youth of color in arrests nationwide, and these patterns re-occur in Los Angeles County. In 2019, Black youth in Los Angeles County were nearly 8 times as likely as white youth to be arrested and Latino youth twice as likely. Together, Black and Latino youth represent 70% of all youth in Los Angeles County (8% and 62% respectively) but almost 90% (27% and 60%, respectively) of youth arrests.”

and refining the message. Consider how your idea of reform can impact change. 4. Present the vision using tools such as Canva, iMovie, or Soundtrap and share it with museumeducation@oscars.org.

Let’s revisit some of the dialogue from Reform School :

Mother Barton: “Have you ever stopped to consider the meaning of the word ‘reform’? Well I’ll define it for you. It means to change from bad to good, to make better, morally. ... You gentlemen will agree that reform school boys are not