Blaxploitation In Afro-American Movies

History and cinema are often linked in the Afro American movies. While the Segregation came to an end in 1964, the murder of two symbols of the civil rights movement – Malcom X (1965) and Martin Luther King (1968)- would revolutionize both the United States history and the Afro American cinema. We attend from then on a new black nationalism with in particular the “Black Panthers”, characterized with the slogan “ Black power”. “Launched by the young president elected by the SNNC (Student Non–Violent Coordinating Committee) Stokely Carmichael, “Black power” became the watchword of the fight for the civil rights”. (Dubois, 2005, p98). Several movies illustrated these events and used the black power. It is the case of If he hollers, let him go …show more content…
This “black identity” was marked by a specific cinematographic kind: the Blaxploitation. The term “Blaxploitation”, is composed from the word “black” and “the exploitation” and defines literally the exploitation (of the image) of the Black. Blaxploitation is, this day the most impressive and noticeable action of the Afro-Americans to control and promote their image on big screen. At first, the emergence of the Blaxploitation was build with Afro American directors such as Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon …show more content…
The movie Shaft (1971) directed by the Afro American director Gordon Parks and produced by the MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) a Hollywood production society. This movie exposes “a private detective who challenged the traditional, white-dominated New York police system” (Rhines, 1996, p44). This movie grossed $11 million at the box office with an initial budget of $1 200 000. Régis Dubois gives another example of these cheap and very profitable movies. Superfly (1972) directed by Gordon Parks Jr and produced by Warner Bros yielded $11 million for a bugdet of $ 500 000. “ The film industry hoped simply to make money by indeed exploiting an audience need. These films were released during the height of the civil rights/black liberation movement” (Rhines, 1996, p 47). So “Black cinema is also white money” is a way to integrate and tone down radical claims into the Hollywood moneymaking machine and myth factory. The Blaxploitation will know a lot of triumph but the production of these movies will decrease after 1975. The emergence of Blockbusters like The Godfather (1972), Jaws (1975) or Rocky (1975) will compete with these movies. Finally, the creation of the Coalition against Blaxploitation will knock down the production of theses