Black-and-white films

directed by John M. Stahl and based on Fannie Hurst 's 1933 novel, is a film which can be described as an emotional, tragic, romance, and sorrowed filled film. What else fits in the film description category? The false black stereotype. The film Imitation of life creates an emotional roller coaster for a viewer today, however reflecting on this film present day we find it in cooperates the misinterpretations and false stereotypes for blacks in the early 20th century. These stereotypes were…

Kathryn Stockett’s novel by the same name. The film takes place during the 1960s in the seemingly bright and blooming town of Jackson, Mississippi, however as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that beneath this town lays a depressing world of prejudice, hate, and separation. The story of the film is being told from three different women’s perspectives: Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson. The film’s protagonist, Skeeter, is a young white woman that just recently graduated from…

Robinson. The film depicts the difficulties Jackie Robinson has to face while entering his baseball career. This film also captures the emotions of blacks when they see Robinson play for the Dodgers since he was the first African American to play in MLB. The film not only shows the difficulties a talented black man has to face during his baseball career, but it also depicts segregation in public facilities. Additionally, it shows how social advantages and disparities affect the blacks. The film…

Reagan’s presidency and policies, saw the many black economic and social gains of the previous decades come to an end. Things like college attendance rates, income levels, and the proportion of two-parent families all declined. At the same time, crime rates escalated and poverty levels increased. Hollywood was not interested in showing this unpleasant reality to its audience; the industry was interested in casting black performers who asserted their black identity, while still maintaining…

about a black teenager named Malcolm living in Inglewood trying to get into law school. He and his two friends Diggy and Jib are then roped into a wild goose chase when Malcolm is given a large amount of drugs amidst an intense gang war. He struggles to maintain his chances of getting into Harvard while surviving this unfortunate situation. DOPE grapples with several issues regarding race including issues with the school system and with depictions of African Americans in the media. The film…

The ebullient and momentous film Stormy Weather, produced by 20th Century Fox in 1943, is an integrated musical which gives a romanticized view of African American life. The characters are very one dimensional and the plot serves very little importance as film arrays the talent of Black musicians and dancers. The “Golden Age of Hollywood” was an era of glitz and exuberance in film history, where films gave a positive insight of America during the peak of The Great Depression. By 1936 the number…

The 1987 film Cry Freedom is based two of Donald Woods’ books, Asking for Trouble and Biko. It tells the friendship between Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and White liberal newspaper editor, Donald Woods. The film’s director, Richard Attenborough presents the first half as Woods’ education on the struggle on Black consciousness movement and it fight against apartheid, and the latter features the plight of Woods’ and his family escape from South Africa in order for him to publish a book…

The film Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele, is the most biting movie on race that has had mainstream success in recent years. A film based around the premise of a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, explores many of the same topics discussed in Gender, Media, and Culture. Get Out is unwaveringly clear in its theme of denying the idea that America has progressed to the point of becoming a post-racial society. Peele employs numerous themes to support this idea,…

are being portrayed as “white” in their roles in films. To some these characters may not be seen as fully “white”, but there are parts that Latinos play that are portraying a white lifestyle while trying to bring their…

The Blaxploitation films in the decade of the 1970’s are one of the greatest examples of Hollywood benefiting from the independent film industry. African American viewers were demanding to see black actors cast in more prominent and leading roles within films, and Hollywood responded by creating movies specifically for urban black audiences. These Blaxploitation films followed a specific outline that changed the traditional characteristics of the typical white male hero by, "substituting a…