Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 – 1971 Curriculum Guide

2. R eimagine each character you’ve selected by removing the stereotypical qualities to tell a fuller story of their experience. Consider some of the changes you can make: • Is it in their clothing? • Is it in the way they talk? Or what they say? • Is it the way they move? • Is it their placement in the frame? • Is it how characters around them behave? • What else can you find?

Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth- Century America , Robert Toll writes: “This negative aspect of their shows was balanced, perhaps even outweighed, by the fact that Black people had their first chance to become entertainers, which not only gave many Negroes a rare opportunity for mobility but also eventually put Blacks in a position to modify and then correct these stereotypes.”

effort. African American newspapers and the NAACP launched the Double V campaign, which called for victory over enemies abroad and enemies at home, namely those who were obstructing full equality for Black Americans. From 1942 to 1945, the US Department of War tapped Hollywood talent to create a propaganda film series called Why We Fight ; the final film in the series is The Negro Soldier (1944). Widely distributed with the backing of the government, the film presents positive stories and images of Black people contributing to the achievements of the country, showing them in stable family units, as clergy, soldiers, lawyers, athletes, and other respected members of society. The film was influential in creating opportunities for Black performers to break Hollywood stereotypes of Black people. After the war, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS, and film movements in other parts of the world such as Italy’s neorealist cinema, started to influence American movie narratives. The civil rights movement gained steam with landmark court cases such as the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education , which ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. American films began to reflect these sociopolitical changes. But while negative Black stereotypes became less prominent in movies, new constraints arose in how Black people were presented in films. A set of postwar Black movie tropes began to develop that have persisted in Hollywood movies for many decades.

models moral integrity, nurturing behavior, and endurance in the face of extreme hardships. The Strong Black Woman often neglects her personal needs in service to the greater good. • • The Jezebel: A sexually voracious and promiscuous Black female character serves as contrast to “good” and “moral” characters in narratives, often seen and defined through a male gaze or perspective.

Explore: Group discussion

• What happens to the power dynamic when one appropriates their own stereotype? • Is this empowering or does it add to hurt and harm? Why? • Can you identify examples of people taking back their own stereotypes in popular culture today? • Context TROPES are repeated words, images, themes, figures, people, sounds, objects, or plot elements that become a metaphorical reference and may be used as a shortcut in storytelling, similar to a figure of speech. For example, common character tropes are the damsel in distress, the trusty sidekick, and the mad scientist. Tropes can lead to the development of stereotypical representations of people, characters, settings, or scenarios in film, both within a single work and across works by different authors. Tropes in movies can be problematic when speaking for any marginalized communities on screen, for example women, LGBTQ+, Indigenous people, any person of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, and more. Tropes have the tendency to feed off each other and bleed into story narratives. These tropes serve as avatars for the white audience or dominant culture to continue to assert moral authority or claim progress on acceptance of a marginalized community by society as a whole.

Once you identify how they fall into their roles, think of the ways you can change that.

• How would you distinguish a stereotype from a trope? What are some examples of each that you see in contemporary media? • What are some ways we can correct misrepresentations of cultures? • How do we ally with a community that is being stereotyped or misrepresented when we are not a part of that community? • How can authentic representation and storytelling uplift communities? Activity: Revision of the character Explore a film made within the past five years where you recognize stereotypes and/or tropes of a community that you identify with. 1. Make a list of all the characters derived from stereotypes and/or tropes in this film and write a short description of each, detailing the elements that make them stereotypes or tropes.

• Can you alter the CHARACTER DESIGN? • Can you make different CASTING choices? • Can you add more individualized features or qualities to each character? • Can you rewrite the dialogue? Or include more details in the SCRIPT? • Can you position them differently in the frame? Or make different PRODUCTION DESIGN choices? • What other characters can be added to tell a fuller story? • What other details can be included? 3. S elect one of the characters you have identified and write a short film SYNOPSIS for an original movie placing your character at the center the story. Include as many details as you can to ensure your character is a PRINCIPAL CHARACTER and not a BIT PART.

Here are a few examples of Black movie tropes:

• The White Savior: A white central character rescues a Black person or a group of Black

Reflect:

Explore: Group discussion

people from circumstances caused by or symptomatic of societal racism.

• What histories do you think led to the development of these characteristics? • What are the visual qualities attached to these roles? • Since we know that stereotypes and tropes tend to be repetitious, find some other movies, books, or media that include similar stereotypes or tropes. • Are there ways you identify with these characters? What are the ways you do not? • Are any of the actors TYPECAST in the roles you identified?

• The Black Friend, often seen as the “buddy” in buddy films: A Black character supports the white protagonist and serves as a moral compass and advisor. The Black Friend character is often one- dimensional, has no backstory, and is only viewed through the lens of the white protagonist. • The Magical Negro: A Black character comes to the aid of a white protagonist in a story. The Magical Negro possesses some otherworldly power, talent, emotional intelligence, or spiritual clarity that the white protagonist can exploit for their own benefit. • The Strong Black Woman: A Black female character

• What aspects of your character move them away from the stereotype and/or trope? • How do you individualize a character in ways that resist lumping people into groups? • How do you build suspense, humor, or drama without relying on stereotypes or tropes to tell a story?

History

In the 1940s, the fight against fascism during World War II brought to the forefront the contradictions between America’s ideals of democracy and its treatment of Black Americans. The country began to reevaluate segregation and racist attitudes in American culture as Black people enlisted in record numbers in the war