Taking a Closer Look at Race Films

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Recommended: Depiction of blacks in films

In early African American Cinema, filmmakers had a mission to move away from white perspectives on what it meant to be black (Stewart 225). Oftentimes, we would see black actors being portrayed in scenes as the antagonist committing crimes, as in the case of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Soon after Griffith released the film, filmmaker Oscar Micheaux forever changed American Independent Cinema with his “response” film Within Our Gates, which helped start the advent of race films (NAACP 1). Some of the most notable race films were: The Homesteader, Body and Soul, and The Blood of Jesus. Such films were produced for all-black audiences that featured black casts. But that did not necessarily mean that they were directed and written by black artists, one example being Michael Roemer’s Nothing But a Man. Although Roemer’s film was different than for instance, Spencer William’s The Blood of Jesus, in some ways they are very similar, in particular their approaches on the aspect of religion. Yet, before any arguments on these two films can be analyzed, we must first briefly discuss each of the films plots and characters to provide background for the thesis. Chronologically, The Blood of Jesus came first, so that is where we will begin. The setting for the film takes place in a small southern town, where a religious woman, Martha, is accidently shot by her undevout husband, Ras. After being shot, due to the limited medical advancements of the time, there was not much that could be done for Martha. In other words, everyone in the town knew she was going to die. Yet, when she is in her comatose state of slumber she encountered an angel, who gives her wisdom of how to avoid the devil and finally reside in Zion or Heaven. Now although... ... middle of paper ... ... a cultural and racial uplifting component of this genre (Seward 2). Many blacks and whites identified with going to church, because historically that was the typical family event dedicated for Sundays. Because race films’ production values were typically low, the use of religion was one of the many ways to draw in black audiences to come see these movies. Works Cited Alexander, Lisa Doris. "Revisited." Journal of Popular Film and Television 41.3 (2013): 136-44. Print. "NAACP History: Oscar Micheaux." NAACP. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. Seward, Adrienne Lanier. "Spencer Williams." Black Camera 4.1 (1989): 3-4. JSTOR. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . Stewart, Jacqueline Najuma. Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity. Berkeley: U of California, 2005. Print.

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