Film as a Medium to Study the Twentieth-Century Afro-American Experience

Hyatt, Marshall and Cheryl Sanders. 1984.  Film as a Medium to Study the Twentieth-Century Afro-American Experience. The Journal of Negro Education.  53 (2): 161-172

Written almost 25 years ago, Hyatt and Sanders advocate for courses on African-American film to teach the African-American experience (as employed by their own African-American studies department at Harvard University) and examine social historical and political implications of each film. They outline a clear, pedagogical approach for a course that would combine reading (several non-fiction texts from Fred Silva and Daniel J. Leab as well as fiction that reflects the time/era) and chronological film studies (From 1920s- early 1980’s).  In addition, Hyatt and Sanders give a historical account of the rise of African-American film making as a response to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation as well as modern cinematic responses to historical climate (such as blaxploitation being a response and reflection of Black Power movements).  The information is cursory and serves simply as a basis for the type of films that a course on African-American film could possibly cover.

As a future professor of English with research interests in both film and literature, I found this helpful in formulating future syllabi and lesson plans for discussions, critiques of  the intersection film and literature. The section on blaxploitation was short and gives a short critique on the genre as being seen as negative, glorifying violence and ghetto societies. However, there is no suggestion of using these films in conjunction with literature and examining the historical climate (civil rights movements, black power movements, etc) that lead to the development of the genre as a whole. I see a definite void that could be filled with a class on Blaxploitation and feminism, for example or blaxploitation and advocacy issues. I am aware that this article is much older than previous ones and lays a foundation for such a course, but I have yet to see many universities employ this model in teaching courses on film; therefore,  it may be a bit outdated.

(Note: Baruch College, CUNY in New York does have a special topics class on blaxploitation that combines  modern rhetoric/ technical composition techniques we have discussed such as podcasting, blogging, and contemporary cinema theory for undergraduate students which I feel is a fresh approach.)