I. Introduction With this curriculum guide, we welcome teachers and high school students to experience Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971 . The most extensive museum exhibition of its kind, Regeneration offers a rigorous and celebratory exploration of the achievements and challenges of BLACK filmmakers in the United States from the dawn of cinema to the civil rights movement. The temporary exhibition is on view at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles from August 21, 2022, through July 16, 2023, and was curated by Doris Berger, Vice President, Curatorial Affairs at the Academy Museum, and Rhea L. Combs, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. While DOMINANT NARRATIVES of history suggest that Black people were not active participants in early American cinema, in fact Black filmmakers have been part of the art of moviemaking since nearly the beginning. Their opportunities have been limited, however—and complicated. Hollywood offered few options, and most roles for actors were fraught with STEREOTYPES . Despite economic and social obstacles, Black people did indeed make films, but outside of the white-dominated industry in the so- called classic era of Hollywood. At a time when the US was still racially segregated, productions made with predominantly Black casts and crew offered a greater variety of stories to Black audiences hungry to see their lives reflected on screen. In the late 1950s, as Hollywood expanded, so did opportunities for some Black filmmakers and actors—and many chose to use their craft to advocate for change and inspire others. They worked toward shifting conversations about race, identity, and culture to explore not only sociocultural limitations but also cinema’s possibilities for telling suppressed stories. The Regeneration exhibition presents this more inclusive history, filling in the gaps to show the steady and potent contributions of Black artists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and critics.
II. Goals of the Curriculum
The history of Black cinema is one that ebbs and flows. There are moments of flourishing and periods of frustration. Throughout, Black artists have found ways to persevere. Sometimes this requires working within the Hollywood system and delivering stellar performances despite the limitations of the script. At other times a complete rupture with the system is necessary to ensure that the message is not co-opted. Traversing this landscape has involved tremendous sacrifice and has given rise to extraordinary creativity. —Doris Berger and Rhea L. Combs, Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971 (2022), p. 21 The exhibition’s namesake, the all-Black-cast film Regeneration ( A Romance of the South Seas ) from 1923, today survives only in fragments. The title embodies the aspirational goals of the exhibition, which seeks to revive lost and forgotten films and film artists and “regenerate” them for a contemporary audience. Alongside the cinematic history, the exhibition weaves in contemporary artworks and provides spaces for dialogue on how we, and artists, grapple with lost histories and their reverberations in the present. Included in this guide is information about the Academy Museum’s pedagogical approach to INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING , along with content connected to both the museum exhibition and catalogue: select biographies of significant Black thinkers and filmmakers; one- sheet guides about the contemporary artists and artworks featured in the exhibition; unique, in-depth film companions connected to the museum’s film programming; a topical essay exploring stereotypes and TROPES in Black Cinema; and a resource section with a glossary of key terms and concepts and California Common Core Standards. Discussion questions and activities are incorporated throughout the guide.
In this guide we aim to provide teachers with inspiration to engage students in the celebration of various kinds of Black cinema while also connecting to broader topics such as the visual aesthetics of stereotypes. By returning to the layered question, “What does Black Cinema mean to you?” we hope to inspire students to consider the myriad questions that spark from this one. For example,
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By participating in components of the Academy Museum Regeneration Curriculum, students will:
• Examine and expand their own understanding of histories highlighting the plurality of the filmmaking experience with emphasis on the subjects of race, gender, and culture • Acquire knowledge of film studies terms, timelines, and key movements • Analyze and determine their own definition(s) of Black cinema • Increase their media literacy and recognize and understand the visual aesthetics of cinema explored throughout this exhibition • Engage in critical thinking and discourse • Develop projects that connect historical context to original ideas and creative perspectives III. How to Use the Curriculum The Regeneration Curriculum is modular and can be used in a wide variety of subject classrooms. Classes of History, Social Studies, English, Film Studies, and more can adopt elements of the curriculum to encourage critical thinking, dialogue, self-directed learning, and collaborative projects. The exhibition and this guide delve into a specific question: “What is Black cinema?” This question is inspired by a college course that filmmaker Charles Burnett took at UCLA in the 1960s. His professor posed the question that he, and now we, realize is open to discussion and debate, revealing deeply personal opinions and generating new, self-created definitions of the meaning of Black cinema. We invite teachers and students to develop their own answers to this question by participating in the dialogues and activities found in the curriculum.
• Who defines culture and identity? • How can we create art and films that allow for different perspectives?
We encourage you to ask your students to think creatively and critically about history itself, and to consider what happens when you think about the multiplicity and plurality of history: What are the histories of America?
Film poster for Stormy Weather ©1943 Twentieth Century Fox
*Words set in ALL CAPS are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts (section F of this guide). Curriculum Text and Guide © 2022 Academy Museum Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License and is not intended for commercial
*Words set in ALL CAPS are defined in the Glossary of Key Terms and Concepts (section F of this guide).
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